How to handle the confidential examination of patent application

According to China National Intellectual Property Administration's patent examination guidelines, the scope of confidential patents includes inventions involving national security or major national interests. The scope of confidential examination conducted by the Patent Office is limited to the application for a patent for invention involving the major interests of the state. (1) Where an applicant files an application for a patent for invention and thinks that his invention involves vital national interests and needs to be kept confidential, he shall file a request for confidentiality at the same time as filing the patent application, or file a request for confidentiality after filing the patent application and before the Patent Office prepares to publish the application (that is, within/0/5 months from the filing date or priority date). (2) The Patent Office shall advise examiners to select applications for a patent for invention whose invention content may involve national security or major national interests when classifying. Determination of confidentiality (1) If the invention involves national security, it shall be submitted to the National Defense Patent Office for examination and approval in accordance with the detailed rules for the implementation of the Patent Law, and the applicant shall be notified. (two) it is obviously unnecessary to keep confidential, and the examiner shall issue a notice of confidentiality to the applicant. After the applicant's statement, the confidentiality examiner still thinks that it is unnecessary to keep confidential, and shall issue a decision not to keep confidential. (3) Unless it is obviously unnecessary to keep confidential, the confidentiality examiner shall send a copy of the application documents (including the request, the specification, the appended drawings of the specification, the claim and the abstract) to the relevant competent department of the State Council for examination; The relevant competent department shall notify the Patent Office of the examination results within four months from the date of receiving the copy of the application documents, and the Patent Office shall promptly notify the applicant of the examination results. If the relevant competent department of the State Council fails to reply within the specified time, the confidentiality examiner shall issue a decision not to keep it confidential, and notify the applicant that the application shall be handled in accordance with the general patent application. If the applicant fails to make a request for confidentiality, the Patent Office may consider it necessary to keep the patent application confidential, and shall handle it with reference to the provisions in items (1) and (3) above.