How long will the substantive examination of a patent last?
The substantive examination of an invention is Conducted in the practical examination department of the Patent Office, the examiner evaluates the "novelty", "creativeness" and "practicability" of the patent application by searching domestic and foreign patent documents and public publications. At the same time, the examiner also evaluates whether the drafting of the patent document meets the requirements. Review, for example, whether it complies with "singleness", whether it is "sufficiently disclosed", whether "modification goes beyond the scope", etc.
Substantial examination must be conducted after the invention is published , the publication required by law is to be made 18 months from the filing date, and some applicants are willing to disclose the content of their inventions in advance, so some patent applications are made public within 6-10 months. Usually, the examiner at the substantive examination stage will issue at least one examination opinion notice to the applicant or his agent. The examination opinions can reflect the possibility of authorization of the invention and the existing defects. Review comments generally include format errors, novelty issues, inventiveness issues, sufficient disclosure, singleness issues, etc.
The time for patent substantive examination is uncertain, generally 6-18 months, depending on the content of the invention, the examiner's understanding of the invention and the examiner's work Arrangements and time for correspondence between the examiner and the applicant or its attorney. The standard fee for substantive examination of invention patents is 2,500 yuan/piece.
The above is the relevant information compiled by the editor about the effective time of the patent substantive examination request. To sum up, we can understand that generally six to eighteen months is uncertain. It should be determined based on the relevant content of the application. Invention patents shall be reviewed according to substantive examination.
What are the contents of substantive examination of invention patent?
Invention patent application Within three years from the date of application, the State Intellectual Property Office may, conduct substantive examination of its application; if the applicant fails to request substantive examination within the time limit without justifiable reasons, the application will be deemed to have been withdrawn. When the State Intellectual Property Office deems it necessary, it may conduct a substantive examination of the invention patent application on its own.
Substantive examination means that the State Intellectual Property Office carefully studies the application documents of the invention patent application, searches for the invention claimed to be protected, and determines whether the invention complies with the patent. The final decision on whether to grant a patent shall be made in accordance with the provisions of the Law and Implementing Rules. Contents of substantive examination:
(1) Whether it complies with the provisions of Article 5 of the Patent Law, that is, whether the subject matter of the patent application violates national laws, social ethics or hinders Public interest situation;
(2) Whether it complies with the provisions of Article 25 of the Patent Law, that is, whether the subject matter of the patent application falls within the scope of which patent rights cannot be granted ;
(3) Whether it complies with the provisions of Article 33 of the Patent Law, that is, whether the patent application meets the requirements of unity;
(4) Whether it complies with the provisions of Article 31 of the Patent Law, that is, when the applicant modifies the application or files a divisional application, whether it exceeds the original description (including drawings) and The scope recorded in the claims;
(5) Whether it complies with the definition of invention stipulated in the Patent Law and Implementing Regulations, that is, the proposed product, method or improvement thereof new technical solutions.
(6) Whether it complies with the provisions of Article 18 of the Implementing Rules of the Patent Law, that is, whether the drafting of the invention description in the patent application meets the prescribed requirements and describes the invention to be protected. The invention is clearly and completely described so that a person skilled in the technical field can realize it;
(7) Whether it complies with Article 20 of the Implementing Rules of the Patent Law stipulations, that is, whether the claims clearly and briefly state the scope of protection requested, whether the claims are based on the description, and whether the independent claims contain all necessary technical features to solve the technical problem to be solved by the invention.
(8) Whether it is consistent with the application claiming priority, if it is found that another person filed another application on the same subject between the priority date and the filing date. If a patent application is filed, or if relevant documents disclosed during this period are found through search, the priority claim will be reviewed to see if it is established; at the same time, the patentability of the invention patent application will be judged based on the comparative documents retrieved.
How to determine invention patent infringement
The scope of protection of an invention or utility model patent is determined by its claims. The content shall prevail, and the description and drawings may be used to interpret the claims. This provision means that the scope of protection of the rights shall be subject to the scope determined by the necessary technical features clearly stated in the claims, which of course also includes the necessary technical features. The scope determined by the features that have the same characteristics.
The so-called equivalent features refer to the technical features recorded in the claims of the invention patent or utility model patent that are basically the same. The same means are used to achieve basically the same functions, thereby achieving basically the same effects, and at the same time, technical personnel in the technical field are required to associate the characteristics without having to go through creative work.
The principle of equivalence in judging the infringement of invention patents and utility model patents is that the people's court determines the lawsuit filed by the plaintiff based on the methods mentioned above and the contents of the claims, descriptions, drawings, etc. Methods for determining whether a product constitutes patent infringement. The People's Court uses the principle of equivalents to determine whether the product in litigation is infringing in the following ways:
(1) Simple transfer of product parts After a simple transformation of the order of bits or method steps, if a person of ordinary skill in the field of the product or method believes that there is no essential difference between the two and is basically the same as the resulting patented technology, the product can basically be determined to be infringing;
(2) Equivalent substitution. A certain technical feature recorded in the claim also has a corresponding technical feature in the product or method accused of infringement. The two technical features play basically the same role or effect in the product or method, and ordinary technicians in the relevant technical field generally know that these two technical features can be interchanged, and the people's court can determine that the product in litigation is infringing;
(3) Decomposition or merging of technical features. Decomposition is to replace the two technical features of the infringing product or method with the ones recorded in the claims of the infringed product. A certain technical feature; merging means replacing two technical features recorded in the claims of the infringed product with a technical feature of the product or method being sued for infringement. If after merging or decomposing, a person of ordinary skill in the technical field will If the positive effects of patented technology can be achieved without creative work, the People's Court may determine it as equivalent infringement.
The above knowledge is the editor's review of "patent substantive review" will last longerTo answer the question "How long will it take", there is no clear stipulation on how long the substantive review of an invention patent will last. The law stipulates that the review will be completed within eighteen months. If readers need to consult a lawyer for legal issues, you are welcome to do so. Go to the Legal Savior Network for legal consultation.
