preliminary examination/check
The preliminary examination of an application for a patent for invention is a necessary procedure for the Patent Office to accept an application for a patent for invention before publication. Its purpose is to make the form and format of patent application documents conform to the requirements of the patent law, and in essence, it will not make the applicant or the public misunderstand the object and theme protected by the patent law.
For details of the examination, please refer to Article 44 of the Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Patent Law of China: "The preliminary examination mentioned in Articles 34 and 40 of the Patent Law refers to examining whether the patent application has the documents and other necessary documents specified in Article 26 or 27 of the Patent Law and whether these documents conform to the prescribed format, and examining the following matters:
(1) Whether the application for a patent for invention obviously falls under the circumstances stipulated in Articles 5 and 25 of the Patent Law, whether it does not conform to the provisions of Articles 18, 19, paragraph 1 and 20 of the Patent Law or Article 16 and 26, paragraph 2 of these Rules, and whether it obviously does not conform to the provisions of Articles 2, 26, paragraph 5, 31, paragraph 1 and 33 of the Patent Law or Articles 17 to 21 of these Rules;
(2) Whether the application for a patent for utility model obviously falls under the circumstances stipulated in Articles 5 and 25 of the Patent Law, whether it does not conform to the provisions of Articles 18, 19, paragraph 1 and 20 of the Patent Law or Articles 16 to 19 and 21 to 23 of these Rules, and whether it obviously does not conform to the provisions of Article 2, paragraph 3, paragraph 2 and paragraph 4 of Article 22, paragraph 3 and paragraph 4 of Article 26 and Article 31 of the Patent Law.
(3) Whether the application for a patent for design obviously falls under the circumstances specified in Article 5 and Item (6) of Paragraph 1 of Article 25 of the Patent Law, whether it does not conform to the provisions of Article 18 and Paragraph 1 of Article 19 of the Patent Law or Articles 16, 27 and 28 of these Rules, and whether it obviously does not conform to Paragraph 4 of Article 2, Paragraph 1 of Article 23, Paragraph 2 of Article 27, Paragraph 2 of Article 31, Article 33 or this Patent Law.
(4) Whether the application documents comply with the provisions of Article 2 and Paragraph 1 of Article 3 of these Rules. "
Substantive inspection
According to the provisions of the Patent Law, the substantive examination procedure of an application for a patent for invention is initiated mainly on the basis of the applicant's request for substantive examination. According to Article 53 of the Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Patent Law: "According to Article 38 of the Patent Law, the situation that an application for a patent for invention should be rejected after substantive examination refers to:
(1) The application falls under the circumstances specified in Articles 5 and 25 of the Patent Law, or the patent right cannot be obtained in accordance with Article 9 of the Patent Law;
(2) The application does not conform to the provisions of the second paragraph of Article 2, the first and third paragraphs of Article 20, the fourth and fifth paragraphs of Article 26, the first paragraph of Article 31 or the second paragraph of Article 20 of these Rules;
(3) The amendment of the application does not conform to the provisions of Article 33 of the Patent Law, or the divisional application does not conform to the provisions of Paragraph 1 of Article 43 of these Rules. "
To sum it up. If the invention patent is not rejected after the above review, the Patent Office will make a decision to grant the patent right and go through some formalities to obtain the invention patent right.