The object of substantive examination of patent application is invention patent. The applicant must submit a request for substantive examination to the Patent Office within the prescribed time limit from the date of application, and China National Intellectual Property Administration can also initiate substantive examination on its own initiative according to law. The substantive examination mainly examines whether the application for invention conforms to the relevant provisions of the Patent Law, especially whether it belongs to the circumstances that should be rejected as stipulated in Article 53 of the Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Patent Law, especially Articles 22.2, 22.3 (i.e. novelty), 26.3, 26.4 (the specification is fully disclosed, and the claims are clearly and concisely supported by the specification), 5, 25 (whether it is the authorized object) and 33.
After the applicant submits the actual request, the case will enter the pending stage of the actual trial, waiting for the actual trial suggested by the examiner. How long it takes to review the proposal is related to the situation that the case is squeezed at the scene. After reviewing the examiner's suggestions, we will generally search the comparison documents to see if there are any patents, papers, products, books and other comparison documents that can affect the novelty of this application, and issue a notice of the first review opinion to inform the applicant of the existing problems in this application and the reasons why it cannot be authorized. If the applicant has any objection to the opinion notice, we can make an opinion statement and submit the revised text (or make an opinion statement directly without modification).
According to the contents of the opinion statement, the auditor will re-examine and issue the nth notice of audit opinion, and so on, until all defects are overcome, the auditor will issue a notice of authorization; Or, if the defect cannot be overcome and the second hearing can be satisfied, the decision to reject the application will be sent.
How many times can the patent substantive examination opinions be made?
There is no requirement to send the notice of examination opinions at most several times in the substantive examination stage of the invention. In the substantive examination stage, when the examiner finds that the patent application is not in conformity with the provisions of the Patent Law and its detailed rules for implementation, he will issue a notice of examination opinions. Upon receipt of the notice of examination opinions, the applicant shall answer the questions raised by the examiner within the specified time, make an opinion statement and obtain the consent of the examiner. The examiner found no new problems in the subsequent review, it shall issue a notice of authorization; However, if the examiner finds new problems in the follow-up review, he will issue a notice of review opinions again. Therefore, there is no fixed answer to how many notices of review opinions will be issued.