As far as the patent examination procedure in China is concerned, there are several cases of rejection:
(1) After preliminary examination, the Patent Office considers that the patent application is obviously not in conformity with the relevant provisions of the Patent Law or requires the applicant to state his opinions or make corrections within a time limit, but it is still considered infeasible after stating his opinions or making corrections, it shall reject it.
(2) After substantive examination, the Patent Office considers that the invention-creation for which the patent is applied does not conform to the provisions of the Patent Law, and requires the applicant to state his opinions or make amendments within a time limit. If the opinions or amendments are still unqualified, they shall be rejected.
(3) After receiving the objection, the Patent Office requires the applicant to make a reply within a time limit. If the objection is established after examination, it shall be rejected. The detailed rules for the implementation of China's patent law clearly stipulate the circumstances in which a patent application should be rejected.
2. What if the patent application is rejected?
You can file a request for reexamination with the Patent Reexamination Board within 3 months after receiving the notice of rejection. First of all, read the notice of rejection carefully, and the examiner will specify the reasons for rejection in the notice of rejection. Reading the notice of rejection decision carefully will help us understand the examiner's opinions and make corresponding treatment according to them.
Secondly, submit a request for reexamination to the Patent Reexamination Board. If you think that the examiner's opinion is unreasonable, you can put forward a request for re-examination to the Patent Reexamination Board within 3 months after receiving the notice of rejection decision, and pay the formal fee for re-examination. In the reexamination request, the reasons for the incorrect opinions of the examiner in the rejection decision shall be clearly stated, and the application documents can be modified at the same time when submitting the reexamination request to overcome the existing problems. Finally, after reexamination, if the rejection result remains unchanged, the Patent Reexamination Board can be used as the defendant to bring a lawsuit to the court.
3. What is the handling method when the revised text submitted by the applicant is unacceptable?
The examiner shall issue a notice of examination opinions, explain the reasons for not accepting the revised text, and require the applicant to submit the revised text within a specified time limit in accordance with Article 5 1 Paragraph 3 of the Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Patent Law. At the same time, it should be pointed out that if the revised text submitted by the applicant still does not conform to the provisions of the third paragraph of Article 5 1 of the Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Patent Law or there are other contents that do not conform to the provisions of the third paragraph of Article 5 1 of the Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Patent Law, the examiner will continue to review the revised text, such as making a decision of authorization or rejection.
In order to protect their intellectual property rights from infringement, general patentees will apply for patents as patentees. But when applying for a patent, the application will often be rejected, and the invention patent will also be rejected. Applicants can go through the examination procedures. Generally, the patent office will make a decision within three months.