1, the patent application was voluntarily withdrawn.
After the application is filed, the applicant may voluntarily withdraw the patent application due to changes in circumstances. For example:
(1) It is found that the application content does not fall within the scope of patent protection;
(two) found that there are serious defects in the writing of the application documents, which may lead to the application not being approved, or the scope of protection will be severely restricted;
(3) It is found that the application lacks patentability, and it is meaningless to proceed to the next procedure;
(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 thinks it is more beneficial to keep the invention secret.
To request the withdrawal of a patent application, a "patent application withdrawal statement" shall be submitted in duplicate, indicating the application number, invention name and applicant of the withdrawal application, and all applicants shall sign and seal it. Where a patent agency is entrusted, the patent agency may handle it on its behalf, but it shall attach a certificate that all applicants agree to withdraw the application.
Once the patent application is withdrawn, the applicant and his heirs may not request its restoration.
If an application for a patent for invention is withdrawn before the publication of the preparation procedure, it will not be published after the withdrawal, but if it is withdrawn after the publication of the preparation procedure, the application will be published as usual. The preparation procedure for publication generally starts from the15th month from the date of application. However, if there is a request for publication in advance, it will enter the publication preparation procedure from the time when the formal examination is qualified, and if there is a priority request, it will enter the publication preparation procedure from the first 15 month from the priority date.
The declaration of withdrawing the patent application shall be made before going through the formalities of patent authorization registration. After going through the registration formalities, the Patent Office immediately entered the announcement preparation procedure. Even if the applicant requests to withdraw the patent application, the Patent Office will publish the authorization and patent specification as usual.
Where an application for a patent for invention is withdrawn before publication and an application for a utility model or design has been registered, the Patent Office shall keep the application documents confidential; And manage according to the application documents before and after publication until the documents are destroyed.
2. The application is deemed to be withdrawn and resumed.
In the process of examination, if the applicant fails to go through the examination and approval procedures within the time limit prescribed by law or designated by the Patent Office without justifiable reasons, his application shall be deemed to have been withdrawn.
Some applicants are unwilling to enter the procedure because of time, energy, economy and other considerations, and deliberately do not go through the formalities; Some applicants don't understand the law and the approval process is delayed. Others postponed the deadline for just reasons.
In practice, the Patent Office can't distinguish these different situations, so it should send a notice of withdrawal to anyone who fails to go through the prescribed procedures within the prescribed time limit. The reasons for the withdrawal were stated in the notice. If the applicant has justified reasons, he shall explain the justified reasons to the Patent Office within two months from the date of receiving the notice of deemed withdrawal, and request the restoration of rights.
To request the restoration of rights, a "Request for Restoration of Rights" shall be submitted in duplicate, explaining the legitimate reasons for delaying the time limit; At the same time, due to the obstruction of legitimate reasons, all the formalities that should be handled and the fees that should be paid should be completed. The cost of handling the formalities should generally be completed within the above two months. If it is really difficult to complete it within two months, it shall request the Patent Office to extend the time limit; The person who requests the restoration of his rights shall also pay the prescribed fee. If the applicant is hospitalized due to illness, which delays the processing time of the actual trial request, the application is deemed to be withdrawn. At this time, if the applicant requests to resume the application, he shall submit the request for the restoration of rights in duplicate, pay the fee for the restoration of rights, go through the formalities for the actual trial of the request and pay the fee for the actual trial of the request.
The request to restore rights needs to be approved by the patent office. The main basis for the examination and approval of the Patent Office is:
(1) Whether the right restoration request, the right restoration request fee, other formalities to be completed and the fees to be paid have been completed within two and a half months after the notice of deemed withdrawal is issued;
(2) Whether the justifiable reason is established, generally speaking, only the reasons that the applicant has no fault or can forgive are considered as justifiable reasons.
If the Patent Office does not agree to the resumption, it shall notify the applicant of the decision not to agree to the resumption. If the applicant refuses to accept this, he may file an administrative reconsideration with the Administrative Reconsideration Office of the Patent Office within 15 days after receiving the notice of disapproval.
3. Reject the application and request a review.
In the examination procedure, after the applicant has stated his opinions or made amendments or corrections according to the requirements of the examiner, if the Patent Office considers that the application still does not conform to the provisions of the Patent Law and its detailed rules for implementation, it shall make a decision to reject the application and notify the applicant in writing.
If the applicant refuses to accept the decision of the Patent Office to reject the application, he may, within 3 months from the date of receiving the notice, request the reexamination board of the Patent Office for reexamination.
The request for reexamination shall be submitted in duplicate, which shall specify the reasons for reexamination, and the reasons for reexamination shall appeal against the matters requested in the rejection decision of the Patent Office, otherwise it will not be accepted. In order to support the reasons for reexamination or eliminate the defects in the application documents, the applicant may attach relevant supporting documents or materials when requesting reexamination, or modify some of the contents involved in the decision to reject the application documents. The request for review shall be made by all applicants. The applicant for reexamination shall also pay the prescribed fee.
Where the written request for reexamination does not conform to the prescribed format, or the written request for reexamination does not meet the requirements, the applicant for reexamination shall make corrections within the time limit specified by the Patent Reexamination Board. If no correction is made at the expiration of the time limit, the request for reexamination shall 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, are generally sent to the original examination department for reexamination, which is called pre-examination. On this basis, the review committee will review and make a decision. The review decision may have two different conclusions:
(1) Maintain the original rejection decision and reject the re-examination request.
(2) Confirm the reasons for the re-examination request, or confirm that the application documents have overcome the defects pointed out in the original rejection decision after being modified by the applicant, and decide to cancel the original rejection decision and return the application to the original examination department for re-examination.
The applicant shall be notified in writing of the reexamination decision. If the applicant for a patent for invention refuses to accept the reexamination decision, he may bring a lawsuit to the Beijing Intermediate People's Court within 3 months from the date of receiving the reexamination decision.
4. Grant the patent right and go through the registration formalities.
If the application for a patent for invention is not found to be rejected after the preliminary examination and substantive examination by the Patent Office, and if the application for a patent for utility model or design is not found to be rejected after the preliminary examination, the Patent Office will issue a Notice of Granting Patent Right and a Notice of Handling Registration Procedures to notify the applicant to handle the registration formalities. If the applicant goes through the registration formalities on schedule, the Patent Office will grant the patent right, issue a patent certificate (including the decision to grant the patent right) and announce it at the same time. The patent right shall take effect as of the date of announcement. Failure to go through the registration formalities at the expiration of the period shall be deemed as giving up the right to obtain the patent right.
Therefore, it is a necessary procedure for the applicant to go through the registration formalities at the patent authorization stage. The explanation is as follows:
(1) Registration time limit
The registration formalities shall be started from the date when the Patent Office issues the authorization notice and the registration notice. After receiving these notices, the applicant shall go through the registration formalities within two and a half months from the date of publication of the seal of the Patent Office in the upper right corner of the notice. If it is not handled at the expiration of the time limit, the Patent Office will issue a notice as a waiver of the patent right.
(2) The impact on other procedures after the start of registration.
After the registration formalities are completed, the patent application that is told that the patent right will be granted shall not be used as the basis for claiming domestic priority; Nor can it be used as the mother case of a new divisional application. If an application filed after the completion of the application registration procedure requires a domestic priority statement, the Patent Office will consider that it has not been filed according to the priority statement. The Patent Office will reject the divisional application according to the application.
After the registration formalities begin, the procedures for changing the description items proposed by the applicant, except for changing the address, shall be suspended and re-applied after the authorization procedures are completed. Therefore, these changes will not be reflected in the patent certificate, but recorded in the patent register and announced in the patent bulletin.
(3) Determination of certification date
The registration date, announcement date and certification date of the patent application notifying the grant of the patent right are the same day in the patent register.
(4) There is no need to submit any documents when going through the registration formalities. Applicants only need to pay the patent registration fee, authorized annual fee, announcement printing fee and patent certificate stamp duty as required. An application for a patent for invention shall also pay the application maintenance fee for each year except the authorized year. Authorized annual fee can be deferred, but not deferred.
(five) to recover the right after giving up the right to obtain the patent right.
If the applicant fails to go through the registration formalities within the prescribed time limit after the Patent Office issues the notice of granting the patent right, the Patent Office shall notify the applicant, which shall be deemed as giving up the right to obtain the patent right. If the applicant has justified reasons to delay the deadline, he can request the restoration of his rights.
The request for restoration of rights shall be made within two months after receiving the notice that the patent office regards it as giving up the patent right, and at the same time, the registration formalities (paying the patent registration fee and the annual fee for authorization) and the prescribed right restoration fee shall be paid. The procedures and requirements for restoring rights after abandonment are the same as those for applying for restoring rights after revocation. (Zhuo Yi Intellectual Property)