Some provisions on the examination of utility model patents in the procedure of invalidation

According to the Patent Examination Guide (hereinafter referred to as the Guide), the examination of utility model patents in the invalidation procedure mainly follows the following provisions: Some provisions on the examination of utility model patents in the invalidation procedure 1. The object of protection for examining utility model patents only protects products. Products should be manufactured by industrial methods, with definite shape and structure, and occupy a certain space. Two. Novelty examination of utility model patent In the novelty examination of utility model patent, all technical features in its technical scheme, including material features and method features, should be considered. The contents of novelty examination of utility model patent include the concept of novelty, the principle of novelty examination, the examination standard, the examination of priority and the grace period for not losing novelty, and other relevant provisions of the Guide shall apply. Three. Examination of the creativity of utility model patent In the examination of the creativity of utility model patent, all technical features in its technical scheme, including material features and method features, should be considered. The related contents of the creative examination of utility model patents include the concept of creativity, the principles of creative examination, the examination standards and the creative judgments of different types of inventions. However, according to the provisions of the patent law, invention-creation means that the invention has outstanding substantive characteristics and remarkable progress compared with the existing technology before the filing date; The creativity of the utility model means that compared with the existing technology before the filing date, the utility model has substantive characteristics and progress. Therefore, the standard of utility model patent creativity should be lower than that of invention patent creativity. The difference between them in the criteria of creative judgment is mainly reflected in whether there is technical enlightenment in the existing technology. When judging whether the existing technology has technical enlightenment, there are differences between invention patents and utility model patents, which are reflected in the following two aspects: (1) For invention patents, we should not only consider the technical field to which the invention patent belongs, but also consider its similar or related technical fields, as well as other technical fields in which the technical problems to be solved by the invention can prompt technicians in this field to find technical means. For utility model patents, the technical field to which utility model patents belong is generally considered. However, if there are clear revelations in the prior art, such as clear records in the prior art, which urge the technicians in this field to find relevant technical means in similar or related technical fields, they can consider their similar or related technical fields. (2) The number of existing technologies of invention patents can be evaluated by citing one, two or more existing technologies. For utility model patents, one or two existing technologies can generally be cited to evaluate their creativity, and for utility model patents formed by simple superposition of existing technologies, multiple existing technologies can be cited to evaluate their creativity according to the situation.