What is the patent examination procedure?

There are two main procedures that the applicant may encounter in the patent examination procedure: one is the application examination and approval procedure required by law or designated by the patent office. If the application is not processed without justifiable reasons or fails to be processed within the time limit, it shall be deemed as withdrawal of the application. These procedures mainly include: submitting a request for substantive examination, responding to various notices from the patent office, and paying the application maintenance fee; The other is the request procedure that the applicant can choose to handle according to the law. If this procedure does not meet the requirements, the patent office can handle the unfinished procedure, which generally does not involve the application itself. These procedures mainly include: actively modifying and correcting the application documents, requesting early publication, reporting and filing project changes and requesting an extension of the time limit. The following procedures are explained separately: 1. Only when an application for a patent for invention makes a request for substantive examination needs to go through this procedure. The actual trial request can be submitted at the same time as the application or after the application, but it should be submitted within 3 years from the date of application at the latest. If the application is not submitted within the time limit without justifiable reasons or is regarded as not submitted due to unqualified procedures, the application shall be deemed to be withdrawn. When the Patent Office deems it necessary, it may examine the application for a patent for invention on its own. Where a request for substantive examination is made, it shall be submitted separately. The request for substantive examination will not take effect until the substantive examination fee is paid. However, if the actual examination fee is not paid after the actual examination request is made, the Patent Office will not immediately issue a notice that the actual examination request is deemed not to have been made, but wait for three years from the date of application. If the applicant still fails to pay the substantive examination fee or fails to pay in full, a notice that the application is deemed to be withdrawn will be issued. If the applicant makes a request for real trial and pays the substantive examination fee, the Patent Office will examine the request for real trial. Do not meet the requirements, the actual trial request will be regarded as a notice of failure to submit or a notice of correction, and the reasons for failure to submit will be stated. Upon receipt of the notice of correction, the applicant shall make corrections within the time limit prescribed by the examiner. If the applicant is deemed not to have given notice after receiving the actual trial request, it shall resubmit the actual trial request that meets the requirements within 3 years from the date of application. If the actual trial request passes the examination, the Patent Office will publish it in the patent bulletin. If it is not corrected or still does not meet the requirements after the expiration of the period, the Patent Office will issue a notice of request for substantive examination to inform the applicant. If the substantive examination request is qualified, the examiner will issue a notice to enter the substantive examination procedure and inform the applicant before entering the substantive examination. The applicant shall, at the same time as submitting the request for substantive examination, submit the reference materials related to his invention before the filing date (before the priority date if priority is claimed). Where an application for a patent for invention is filed in a foreign country, the Patent Office may require the applicant to submit the information retrieved from the examination of his application in that country or the information on the examination results within a specified time limit; If the application is not submitted within the time limit without justifiable reasons, the application shall be deemed to have been withdrawn. When making a request for substantive examination, the applicant may, within 3 months from the date of receiving the notice from the Patent Office that the application for a patent for invention has entered the substantive examination stage, take the initiative to propose amendments to the application for a patent for invention. 2. Reply to various notices of the Patent Office In the process of preliminary examination or substantive examination, when the examiner finds that the application has obvious defects, format defects or substantive defects, he shall notify the applicant to make corrections or amendments to the application within a specified time, or state his opinions on the defects pointed out by the examiner. The applicant must reply to this. If the applicant fails to reply within the time limit without justifiable reasons, the application will be regarded as withdrawn. Applicants should pay attention to the following points when replying: (1) Observe the deadline for reply, and the consequences of late reply are the same as not replying. Except for the first notice of preliminary examination opinions on an application for a patent for invention, the reply period of other notices is generally 2 months, but for particularly simple procedures or in order to speed up the procedures, the examiner can only give a reply period of 1 month. The applicant shall pay attention to the time limit specified by the examiner and calculate the final reply date according to the publication date stamped by the Patent Office in the upper right corner of the notice. Last reply date = posting date+15 days+specified time limit; When calculating the time limit, the applicant shall pay attention to the relevant provisions of Article 6 of the Implementing Rules. If the applicant fails to reply within the time limit for some reason, it shall go through the extension formalities before the expiration of the time limit. (2) answer the questions raised in the notice of review opinions one by one. If the applicant fails to respond to a certain aspect or a certain review opinion, it can be regarded as not responding on time, resulting in the application being considered as withdrawn. The reply can agree with the examiner's opinion, and make corrections or amendments to the application according to the examination opinions; You can also disagree with the examiner's opinion and defend it, stating the applicant's opinion and reasons. Defects in format or procedure can generally be eliminated by correction; Obvious defects are generally difficult to eliminate through correction or modification. In most cases, we can only defend and state opinions on whether there are obvious defects, such as: inventions are not the object of patent protection, inventions violate national laws and harm public interests; There are two kinds of substantive defects, some of which can be eliminated by modification, such as the defect of writing right and oneness; Some of them are difficult to modify, for example, the instructions are not completely open, and there are defects in novelty, creativity and practicality. (3) The modification of an application for a patent for invention or utility model shall not exceed the scope recorded in the original specification and claims, and the modification of an application for a patent for design shall not exceed the scope shown in the original picture or photograph. Otherwise, the application may be rejected. (4) The defence shall be filed in the prescribed form. If there is any modification, there should be an amendment, and if there is any modification or opinion statement, there should be an opinion statement. For the corrected content, in addition to filling in the correction form, a replacement page should also be submitted. For example, the examiner requests to reprint the second page of the instruction in the notice of correction, and the applicant shall submit the correction book and clearly reprint the second page of the instruction when making corrections. Fill in "Description" in the file name column, "P, 2" in the page number column, "Unclear" in the column before correction and "Reprint" in the column after correction. The replacement page should be set behind the opinion statement. The applicant shall, in accordance with the requirements of the examiner, use the correction or opinion statement. Under normal circumstances, the formal or procedural problems are corrected by using the correction book, and the substantive contents of the application are modified by using the opinion statement. If the applicant disagrees with the examiner's opinion, use a statement of opinion when replying. 3. Pay the application maintenance fee. You only need to apply for a patent for invention. Where an application for a patent for invention has not been granted a patent right for two years from the date of filing, the applicant shall pay the application maintenance fee from the third year. The annual application maintenance fee shall be paid when the applicant goes through the registration formalities, excluding the year when the patent right is granted; An application that has not been granted a patent right does not need to pay an application maintenance fee. The year is counted from the date of application. For example, the filing date of an application is 1988.5. 12, and the first year is1988.5.1989.5.12 ~/kloc. 1990.5./kloc-0.2 If the application fails, the application maintenance fee shall be paid from the third year. Application for maintenance fees can be reduced or exempted according to regulations. 4. Request for early publication The request for early publication is a procedure that the applicant can choose according to the situation, and it is only applicable to the application for a patent for invention. According to the Patent Law, an application for a patent for invention shall be published after 18 months from the date of filing according to normal procedures. After publication, the applicant can obtain the right of temporary protection, and the content of the application will become part of the existing technology. For the following reasons, the applicant may require that his application be published in advance. (1) In order to bring the invention to the market as soon as possible and find a suitable buyer, it is necessary to publish the content of the invention as soon as possible. (2) In order to prevent others from using the patented invention for free, it is necessary to obtain temporary protection as soon as possible. (3) before making a request for a real trial, get as long as possible to listen to the opinions of the market and the public in order to decide whether to make a request for a real trial. (4) preventing others from obtaining patents for similar inventions by requesting that the contents of their applications for patents for inventions be published in advance. Where the applicant requests to be published in advance, it shall submit a "statement for requiring to be published in advance" in duplicate, and indicate the application number, the name of the invention and other necessary descriptive matters for applying for being published in advance. The statement requiring advance announcement shall be signed and sealed by the applicant. Where a patent agency is entrusted, it may be signed and sealed by the patent agency. If more than one applicant fails to entrust a patent agency, it may be signed and sealed by the representative of the applicant. Applicants cannot attach any conditions to the announcement in advance. If the pre-public statement passes the examination, the Patent Office will enter the publication preparation procedure immediately after the application documents pass the preliminary examination. At this time, if the applicant requests to cancel the early disclosure, the applicant's request for canceling the early disclosure is deemed not to have been made, and the application documents are made public as usual. 5. Active revision and correction of application documents is also a procedure that applicants can choose according to their needs. When there are various defects in the application documents, the applicant may take the initiative to correct or modify them within the time specified in the detailed rules for implementation. Correction is mainly to correct the defects in the form or format of the application or the defects in the procedure. For example, if the original document does not use the unified format formulated by the Patent Office, it can take the initiative to make corrections and submit qualified documents; If the original request is unsigned, you can submit the signed request through active correction; Where an applicant applies to entrust a patent agency, if a power of attorney for patent agency is not submitted at the time of application, he may submit a power of attorney for patent agency on his own initiative. Modification mainly refers to the modification of the application content. Applications for patents for utility models and designs are only allowed to be actively modified within 3 months from the date of application; An application for a patent for invention is only allowed to actively modify the application documents when making a request for substantive examination and within 3 months from the date of receiving the notice from the Patent Office that the application for a patent for invention has entered the substantive examination stage, and in response to the examiner's first examination opinions. The Patent Office will regard the active amendment proposed outside the above-mentioned prescribed time limit as not proposed. The requested modification should be carried out through a special program that describes the item change, not according to the program of active modification mentioned here. The modification of the claim shall be based on the specification. The applicant can modify the preamble part of the claim, or modify its characteristic part to make it more accurate to adapt to the invention or more logical. In order to make the patent application meet the requirements of singularity or strengthen protection, the applicant may also add or delete the claims in the claims. Generally speaking, the modification of the specification is mainly limited to non-substantive parts, such as the name of the invention, background technology, technical field of the invention, description of drawings and abstract. These parts can be modified according to the contents of the substantive part of the specification to make it more suitable for the theme of the invention and more convenient for the public and examiners to understand the invention. Modifications to the necessary parts of the specification, namely, the purpose of the invention, technical scheme, effect and embodiment, are generally not allowed and can only be considered under very special circumstances. For example, the purpose of the invention is obviously incompatible with the technical scheme, and the purpose of the invention can be appropriately modified according to the technical scheme; If the application does not meet the requirements of singularity, modify the instruction to make it meet the requirements of singularity; What is only written in the claims at the time of application is added to the specification, and so on. Modification of design pictures or photos is limited to tracing unclear lines, painting unprotected words, or correcting obvious errors and inconsistencies in the view. Any active modification or correction shall not exceed the scope recorded or indicated in the original application. Whether the active revision or correction can be accepted is decided by the examiner. Take the initiative to modify or correct should use opinion statements or corrections, indicating the name, number of pages, location and reasons for the modification; The revised part shall be printed on the replacement page and attached to the opinion statement or supplementary book. 6. Procedures for recording project changes The procedures for recording project changes are also procedures that applicants can choose according to their needs. Descriptions of a patent application include: application number, application date, name of invention-creation, classification number, priority matters (including application number, application date and country of earlier application), matters of the applicant or patentee (including name, nationality, address and postal code of the applicant or patentee), name of inventor, patent agency matters (including name, address, postal code and name of patent agency after the applicant filed the application), When the personnel description items in the request (referring to the matters of the applicant or patentee, the name of the inventor, the matters of the patent agency, the contact person and the representative) are changed, the parties concerned shall go through the formalities for reporting the change of the description items in accordance with the provisions; When other description items change, the Patent Office shall make amendments according to the situation and ex officio. When going through the formalities for the change of the description items, a statement on the change of the description items shall be submitted to the Patent Office, which shall specify the changed items and the situation before and after the change. Where the change involves the inventor, applicant or patent agency, it is also necessary to attach supporting materials, explain the reasons for the change, and pay the prescribed fees. When multiple description items of a patent application change at the same time, only one item needs to be declared; When the same description of multiple patent applications changes, even if the contents of the changes are exactly the same, they should also submit their own description change declaration forms. In the patent fee standard published by the Patent Office, the description change fee refers to the fee for each patent application to declare the description change. Unless otherwise specified, the change fee for describing the project shall be paid within one month from the date of the request. Failing to pay or not paying in full at the expiration of the time limit shall be deemed as not declaring the change of the explanatory items. The specific requirements are as follows: (1) Changing the name of the invention-creation The name of the invention-creation is not only a part of the request, but also a part of the specification. Therefore, in order to change the name of an invention-creation, in addition to submitting a statement of change description, it should also be accompanied by a statement of opinions explaining the reasons for the change, and the change procedures can only be handled with the consent of the examiner. (2) The change of the inventor and designer can be divided into two situations: one is the change of the name of the inventor and designer, which is only a nominal change and does not involve the change of rights. If the name of the inventor or designer is changed, the name change certificate issued by the household registration department shall be attached in addition to the declaration of project change. The other is the change of inventors and designers. Since the right of invention cannot be transferred and inherited, the change of inventors (including the increase or decrease of the number of people) is mainly due to the applicant's improper declaration or the dispute of the right of invention. If it is necessary to change the inventor due to improper declaration, the applicant shall handle the change formalities on his behalf. In addition to submitting the statement of changing the recorded items, it shall also be accompanied by a detailed explanation of the improper statement, a certificate to be corrected or circumstantial evidence of other inventors. If there is a dispute over the right to invention-creation, it shall request the patent administration institution to mediate or bring a suit in a people's court. Where the right to invention and creation is returned through mediation by the patent administration organ or a people's court ruling, the legal inventor may request the Patent Office to go through the formalities for changing the recorded items on the basis of a legally effective decision or judgment. (3) The change of the applicant (or patentee) mainly includes five situations: ① the name of the applicant is changed by an individual, and the name change certificate issued by the household registration department should be attached to the change of the name in addition to the declaration of the change; If the applicant is a unit, when changing the name of the unit, in addition to submitting the declaration, it should also be accompanied by the approval of the competent department to change the name, or the registration certificate of the name change in the administrative department for industry and commerce. (2) the right to apply for inheritance or gift. If the original applicant dies and obtains the right to apply through inheritance in accordance with the inheritance law, when going through the formalities of change, in addition to reporting the change of the recorded items, it shall also attach the certificate that the party concerned is the only legal heir or that the party concerned has included all legal heirs. ; If not all legal heirs are required to change, there should also be statements of consent or waiver by other legitimate legal heirs. If the applicant voluntarily donates the right to apply to others, the donee shall submit a statement of project change for the record and attach a notarized gift certificate when going through the formalities for change; When the applicant goes through the formalities of change, in addition to submitting the statement of change of recorded items, it shall also be accompanied by a notarized acceptance statement of the donee. (3) The obligee who has obtained the right to apply for transfer shall, when going through the formalities for change, submit a statement on the change of recorded items, and attach a valid transfer contract signed by both parties. When necessary, the Patent Office may require notarization of the contract. The transfer of patent application rights or patent rights involving overseas residents or legal persons shall comply with the following provisions: a. If both the transferor and the transferee are overseas residents or legal persons, the original or notarized copy of the transfer contract signed by both parties must be submitted to the Patent Office; 2. If the transferor is a legal person or individual in Chinese mainland and the transferee is an overseas resident or legal person, the approval document issued by the foreign economic relations and trade department of the State Council in conjunction with the administrative department of science and technology of the State Council, as well as the original or notarized copy of the transfer contract signed by the transferor and the transferee; C. When the transferor belongs to an overseas resident or legal person and the transferee belongs to a legal person or individual in Chinese mainland, the original notarized transfer contract signed by both parties shall be issued to the Patent Office; D. The procedures for changing the above-mentioned patent application right or description items of patent right transfer must be handled by the transferor's applicant or patentee or the patent agency entrusted by him. A-D Overseas residents or legal persons refer to foreigners, foreign enterprises, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan residents or legal persons who have no habitual residence or business office in Chinese mainland. China residents or legal persons who have their habitual residence or business office in Chinese mainland may apply for patent application and patent transfer in accordance with regulations. (IV) Transfer of the right to apply If an individual or unit with the right to apply is illegally deprived of the right to apply by others, and the right to apply is returned after mediation by the patent administration organ or ruling by the people's court, the legal applicant may go through the formalities for changing the applicant with the legally effective decision of the patent administration organ or the effective judgment of the people's court. (5) Correct the mistakes in the statement. If the original applicant requests to correct the error by changing the recorded items because the application form is improperly filled in, omitted or incorrectly filled in by the applicant at the time of application, it shall be proposed by the original applicant. In addition to submitting the declaration form for changing the recorded items, it should also be accompanied by a detailed explanation of the original improper declaration or evidence or proof that will be corrected. After the applicant changes, all the legal procedures that have come into effect for the original applicant are binding on the changed applicant. However, if the patent agency entrustment relationship is terminated and the applicant wants to entrust a patent agency after the change, he shall go through the patent agency entrustment formalities again. If there are more than one applicant, and only some applicants change the patent agency entrustment relationship, it may not be suspended, but the newly added applicant shall go through the patent agency entrustment procedures and submit his signed patent agency power of attorney. (4) Change of Patent Agency The change of patent agency includes the applicant's request to cancel or replace the patent agency and the change of the name and address of the patent agency itself. (1) Where the applicant requests to change the patent agency, it shall submit a statement on the items of the change specification, and attach a power of attorney to cancel the original patent agency and a power of attorney to entrust a new patent agency. The termination letter of the original patent agency shall be in duplicate, one for the Patent Office and the other for the original patent agency. There is no uniform format for the termination letter, which can be printed and signed by the applicant. When the applicant requests to change the patent agency, he needs to pay the change fee. (2) When a patent agency changes its name or address, it should do two things at the same time: one is to file with the China National Intellectual Property Administration Agency Management Office, and the other is to go through the formalities of changing the description items for the agency every time. Renaming requires the approval of the competent department. The patent agency needs to pay the prescribed fee for renaming. (5) Changes in other projects Changes in other projects mainly include changes in the address of the applicant or patent agency, changes in the contact person designated by the unit or the agent designated by the agency, and changes in the seal style of the applicant or patent agency.