How to actively change the technical scheme in the process of invention patent application?
The application document for a patent for invention is the basic document for patent examination and protection, which mainly includes several parts, such as specifications and claims. If the applicant may not sum up the most suitable claim at the time of initial application for various reasons, how can he actively change the technical scheme during the application for a patent for invention? If the contents recorded in the original application documents are sufficient, but the protection scope of the right claim design is not appropriate, the applicant can take the opportunity of active modification to make modifications, that is, when making a request for substantive examination, or within three 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, the applicant can make active modifications based on the original application documents. At this time, the modification is more flexible. As long as the amendment conforms to the provisions of Article 33 of the Patent Law, the whole claim can be re-planned in a wider scope when necessary, such as adding new independent claims, new dependent claims and rewriting independent claims. On the contrary, if you miss the opportunity of the above-mentioned active revision, you need to make corresponding revisions for the defects pointed out in the notice after receiving the notice of review opinions, which will be subject to many constraints, such as not expanding the protection scope of the claims, not adding new independent claims and subordinate claims. Timely filing a divisional application During the whole application process of the invention patent, the applicant may file a divisional application on the basis of the original application documents until two months from the date of applying for authorization or three months from the date of rejecting the decision (see the relevant provisions in the Patent Examination Guide for specific provisions). Although the claims in the divisional application cannot exceed the contents recorded in the original application documents, the applicant may, according to the changes in market conditions, file an appropriate divisional application for a long time, such as requesting a new scope of protection, or protecting the contents recorded in the specification but not protected in the original claim. According to the current judicial practice, if after the patent is granted, it is found that the suspected infringer used the scheme recorded in the patent specification but failed to protect it in the claim, the patentee cannot bring it into the scope of patent protection again at this time. Priority of Fair Use If the contents recorded in the original application documents are found to be insufficient within 12 months from the date of filing, it is hoped that a broad generalization will be made on the basis of the original application documents, or new embodiments need to be supplemented. At this time, you can claim the priority of the original application and file a new patent application. At this time, it should be noted that: first, if the applicant requests the priority of China patent application, the original application shall be deemed to have been withdrawn from the date of filing the latter application; Secondly, according to the provisions of the Paris Convention on priority, priority means that an applicant applies for the same subject in other member countries within a certain period of time after the first application is filed by one member country, and subsequent applications are regarded as filed on the filing date of the first application in some aspects. Therefore, if the patent application is actively modified within the period of active modification, as long as it conforms to the provisions of Article 33 of the Patent Law, the claim can be increased or the scope of protection can be changed.