What is the review process of the patent reexamination procedure?

(1) Formal examination After receiving the reexamination request submitted by the claimant, the Patent Reexamination Board shall first conduct formal examination. The main contents of formal examination include: the object of examination request, the time limit of examination request, the qualification of examination applicant, examination fee, examination reason, the format and content of examination request, and the power of attorney of patent agency when necessary. If there is no request for reexamination of the rejection decision made by China National Intellectual Property Administration Patent Office, or the time for making the request for reexamination exceeds the statutory three-month period, or the applicant for reexamination is not the applicant of the rejected patent application, the request for reexamination will not be accepted.

(2) Pre-trial

According to Article 61 of the Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Patent Law, the Patent Reexamination Board shall submit the request for reexamination (including the attached supporting documents and revised application documents) that has passed the formal examination to the original examination department that made the rejection decision for examination. This kind of inspection is called pre-inspection. According to the requirements of section 3. 1 in Chapter 2 of Part IV of the Review Guide, except in special circumstances, the original review department should generally close the case within one month after receiving the case file and make a "pre-trial opinion".

If the applicant for reexamination submits the revised text during reexamination, the preliminary examination shall first examine whether the revision of the application documents is limited to eliminating the defects pointed out in the rejection decision. In accordance with the provisions, the revised text as the basis for pre-trial; Do not meet the requirements, insist on rejecting the decision, and explain in detail the opinions that do not meet the requirements.

(III) Collegiate Review In the process of collegiate review, the collegiate panel conducted a comprehensive study on the review request, application documents and pre-trial opinions of the original review department. In the collegiate panel review, the collegiate panel generally only reviews the reasons and evidence on which the rejection decision is based.

However, if the collegial panel finds that the reexamination text has defects that can be rejected, and is accompanied by other reasons and evidence that have been told to the applicant before the decision of rejection is made, or there are obvious substantive defects that are not pointed out in the decision of rejection or are of the same nature as the defects pointed out in the decision of rejection, it may examine the relevant reasons and evidence, and after examination, it shall make a reexamination decision to maintain the decision of rejection based on the reasons and evidence.