What are the review and approval procedures for patent applications
In the review process , if the applicant fails to go through certain approval procedures within the time limit stipulated by law or the time limit designated by the Patent Office without justifiable reasons, his application will be deemed to have been withdrawn. Some of these are caused by the applicant's unwillingness to proceed with the procedure due to time, energy, and financial considerations, and deliberately do not go through the procedures; some are errors caused by the applicant's ignorance of the law and approval procedures, which delays the procedure; some are errors caused by the applicant's ignorance of the law and approval procedures, which delays the procedure; There is indeed a legitimate reason for delaying the deadline. In actual operation, the Patent Office cannot distinguish between these different situations, so if the required procedures are not completed within the time limit, a deemed withdrawal notice will be issued. The notice states the reasons for the deemed withdrawal. If the applicant has legitimate reasons, he shall, within two months from the date of receipt of the deemed withdrawal notice, explain the legitimate reasons to the Patent Office and request restoration of rights.
The patent application was voluntarily withdrawn
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After the applicant files the application, due to changes in circumstances, the applicant may take the initiative to withdraw the patent application. For example:
(1) It is found that the application content does not fall within the scope of patent protection;
( 2) It is discovered that there are serious flaws in the writing of the application documents, which may result in the application not being approved, or the scope of protection will be severely limited;
(3) It is discovered that the application lacks patentability , it is meaningless to proceed to the next step;
(4) The applicant requests to apply for a confidential patent, but the competent department of the State Council does not agree. After consideration, the applicant believes that the invention will be It is more beneficial to keep it secret.
To request the withdrawal of a patent application, a "Patent Application Withdrawal Statement" shall be submitted in duplicate, indicating the application number, invention title and applicant of the application requested to be withdrawn, and shall have the signatures and seals of all applicants. If a patent agency is entrusted, the patent agency can handle the procedures, but it should be accompanied by proof that all applicants agree to withdraw the application.
Once a patent application is withdrawn, the applicant and his successors may no longer request for reinstatement.
If an invention patent application is withdrawn before the publication preparation process is entered, it will no longer be published after the withdrawal. However, if it is withdrawn after the publication preparation process is entered, the application will be published as usual. The publication preparation process generally starts from the 15th month from the filing date. However, if there is a request for early publication, the publication preparation process will start as soon as the formal examination is passed. If there is a priority request, the publication preparation process will start from the 15th month from the priority date. program.
A statement to withdraw a patent application shall be made before going through the patent authorization registration procedures. After completing the registration procedures, the Patent Office immediately enters the announcement preparation process. Even if the applicant requests to withdraw the patent application, the Patent Office will announce the authorization and publish the patent specification as usual.
If an invention patent application is published before a utility model or design application is withdrawn before registration procedures are completed, the Patent Office shall keep the application files confidential; and in accordance with Application files before publication and announcement will be managed in the same way until the files are destroyed.
Application deemed withdrawn and its reinstatement
at During the review process, if the applicant fails to complete certain approval procedures within the time limit specified by law or the time limit designated by the Patent Office without justifiable reasons, his application will be deemed to have been withdrawn.
Some of these are caused by the applicant's unwillingness to proceed with the procedure based on time, energy, and financial considerations, and deliberately do not go through the procedures; some are caused by Mistakes caused by applicants not understanding the law and approval procedures delayed the processing time; some delays were caused by legitimate reasons.
In actual operation, the Patent Office cannot distinguish between these different situations, so if the required procedures are not completed within the time limit, a deemed withdrawal notice will be issued. The notice states the reasons for the deemed withdrawal. If the applicant has legitimate reasons, he shall, within two months from the date of receipt of the deemed withdrawal notice, explain the legitimate reasons to the Patent Office and request restoration of rights.
If you request the restoration of rights, you should submit a "Request for Restoration of Rights" in duplicate, explaining the legitimate reasons for delaying the time limit; at the same time, you must make up for various required procedures that have not been completed due to obstacles due to legitimate reasons. and repay the fees that should be paid. The re-application procedures and repayment of fees should generally be completed within the above two months. If there are indeed difficulties and cannot be completed within two months, you should request the Patent Office to extend the time limit; if you request to restore your rights, you should also Pay the prescribed fees. For example, if the applicant is hospitalized due to illness, which delays the time limit for processing the substantive review request, the application is deemed to be withdrawn. At this time, if the applicant requests to restore the application, he should submit a request for restoration of rights in duplicate and pay the restoration fee. Rights handling fee, re-examination request procedure, re-payment of substantive examination request fee.
Request for restoration of rights must be approved by the Patent Office. The main basis for approval by the Patent Office is ：
(1) Whether the request for restoration of rights, the request fee for restoration of rights, and other procedures that should be completed and the fees that should be paid are completed after the issuance of the deemed withdrawal notice Completed within two and a half months;
(2) Whether the legitimate reasons proposed are tenable. Generally speaking, only if the applicant has no fault or the fault can be excused. is considered to be a legitimate reason.
If the Patent Office does not agree to the restoration, it will make a decision not to agree to the restoration and notify the applicant. If the applicant is not satisfied with this, he can Within 15 days after receiving the notice of disapproval of restoration, submit an administrative review to the Administrative Review Division of the Patent Office.
Reject the application and request for review
During the examination procedure, after the applicant states its opinions or makes modifications or corrections at the request of the examiner, the Patent Office considers that the application still does not comply with the Patent Law and its implementing regulations. If the applicant is dissatisfied with the decision of the Patent Office to reject the application, he may make a decision to reject the application and notify the applicant in writing.
Request a reexamination to the Patent Office Reexamination Committee within 3 months from the date of the reexamination.
To request reexamination, a "Request for Reexamination" must be submitted in duplicate, stating the reasons for the reexamination, The request for reexamination should be based on the matters raised in the patent office's rejection decision, otherwise it will not be accepted. In order to support the reason for reexamination or eliminate defects in the application documents, the applicant can attach relevant supporting documents or information when requesting reexamination. Parts involved in the rejection decision of the application documents may also beThe content is modified. The request for reexamination shall be submitted jointly by all applicants. Those who request reexamination must also pay the prescribed fees.
If the reexamination request does not comply with the prescribed format, or the filling does not meet the requirements, the reexamination requester shall make corrections within the time limit designated by the Patent Reexamination Board. If corrections are made, the request for review will be deemed not to have been made.
After the reexamination request is accepted, the reexamination request and its attachments, especially the application documents modified by the applicant, must first be sent to the original examination department for processing. Review is called preliminary review, and the review committee will review and make a decision on this basis. The reexamination decision may have two different conclusions:
(1) Maintain the original rejection decision and reject the reexamination request.
(2) Confirm that the reasons for the reexamination request are established, or confirm that the application documents have overcome the defects pointed out in the original rejection decision after modification by the applicant, and decide to revoke the original rejection decision, the application is returned to the original review department for re-examination.
The applicant shall be notified in writing of the reexamination decision. If the applicant for an invention patent application is dissatisfied with the reexamination decision, he may file a petition with Beijing within 3 months from the date of receipt of the decision. The Municipal Intermediate People's Court prosecuted.
As mentioned above, upon receiving notification from the Patent Office, a request for restoration of rights should be made, otherwise it will be deemed to have been abandoned. If a request is made within two months after receiving the patent right notice, re-registration procedures must be completed and the prescribed right restoration request fee must be paid. If a certain approval procedure is completed, the application will be deemed to be withdrawn. For more related legal issues, the professional lawyers of Legal Savior Network will provide you with legal consulting services.
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