The acceptance office of the preliminary examination department of the patent office, or the patent agency established by the patent offices of all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government. Application documents that have not been registered by the above-mentioned acceptance departments are prohibited from entering the examination and approval procedures.
② Acceptance method
Electronic application or paper document.
③ Identify whether the application documents meet the acceptance requirements.
Whether the application documents meet the minimum requirements for acceptance (such as clear application category, qualified format, qualified applicant, qualified submission method, compliance with the provisions of compulsory patent agency, etc.). ), and then: send an acceptance notice to the applicant, determine the patent application date and application number, and notify the applicant to pay the application fee.
Confidentiality identification ① If the application documents involve national security or major interests, they shall be reviewed and managed in accordance with confidentiality procedures.
Confidential patent application
The Patent Office will still examine the application for a patent for utility model in paper form, but it will not publish it. After authorization, only the patent number, application date and authorization announcement date will be published in the patent bulletin.
The patent office shall notify the applicant of the patent application that is determined to be confidential.
It can be decrypted according to the decryption request put forward by the applicant or the patentee in writing, or according to the confidential patent application review conducted by the Patent Office every two years. Decryption should be marked, declassified and published in a separate book.
(2) the application documents do not involve national security or major interests, according to the general procedures for examination and management.
The examiner of the classified patent office will classify the utility model application documents according to IPC to facilitate the examiner's retrieval and examination.
Preliminary examination ① Contents of preliminary examination (see preliminary examination of utility model for details)
Formal examination of patent application documents (such as the format of the request, specification, drawings and claims).
Whether the legal procedures related to the patent application (such as entrusted agency, priority, etc.). ) meets the requirements.
Whether the fees paid by the applicant meet the requirements.
Examination of obvious substantive defects (for example, whether it belongs to the object of protection stipulated in the patent law, whether it conforms to the principle of prohibiting repeated authorization, whether the scope of protection is clear and concise, whether it meets the requirements of utility model patent, whether it meets the requirements of singularity, whether it requires priority or divisional application, etc.). ).
(2) the start time of the preliminary examination.
After the acceptance, the application fee and surcharge are paid in full, and the confidentiality review is completed, the preliminary examination begins.
(3) Preliminary examination results
If the application documents meet the requirements, the examiner will issue a notice of preliminary examination.
If the procedures are incomplete or the application documents have formal defects, the examiner will issue a notice of correction. If the applicant has passed the correction, the preliminary examination will continue. If the applicant fails to make corrections within the time limit, it shall be deemed to have withdrawn the application.
If there are obvious substantive defects in the application documents, the examiner will issue a notice of examination opinions, and the applicant will be rejected if he has not overcome the defects for many times, and the applicant will pass the preliminary examination after overcoming the defects; If the applicant fails to reply within the time limit, it shall be deemed to have withdrawn the application.
Authorization and announcement ① Time of authorization and announcement
After passing the preliminary examination, the Patent Office will issue a patent authorization notice and a registration notice at the same time. The applicant needs to go through the patent registration formalities within 2 months from the date of receiving the notice.
② The process of authorization and announcement.
If the applicant goes through the formalities of patent registration within the time limit, the Patent Office will issue a patent certificate, which will be registered and announced on the same day, and the patent right will take effect from the date of announcement.
If the applicant fails to go through the registration formalities within the time limit, it shall be deemed as giving up the patent right.
After obtaining the patent right, the applicant needs to pay the annual patent fee regularly. Failure to pay or insufficient fees shall be regarded as giving up the patent right.
(3) authorization and announcement fee.
When going through the registration formalities, the applicant shall pay the patent registration fee, the annual fee for authorization, the stamp duty on the patent certificate and the printing fee for the announcement.
(4) authorization and announcement results.
The patent office issues patent certificates to the patentee; Register the authorized matters in the patent register; Announce that decision to grant the patent right in the patent gazette.