The time for filing an application for substantive examination allows the applicant to file a request for substantive examination within three years, which can prompt the applicant to file an application for invention as soon as possible. Once the applicant has completed the technical scheme according to his own invention idea, he can apply to the China National Intellectual Property Administration Patent Office. At this time, he only needs to pay the application fee, and then he can conduct investigation and study within a three-year period to understand the market demand and patent transfer prospect and judge the value of applying for a patent for this invention. If the invention can really achieve greater benefits, it shall submit a request for substantive examination to the China National Intellectual Property Administration Patent Office and pay the substantive examination fee. If the application for a patent for invention is found to have irreparable defects or poor economic benefits, the request for substantive examination can be stopped, thus saving about three times the application fee for substantive examination.
As a patent agent, when accepting an application for a patent for invention, he should help the client analyze when it is most beneficial to make a request for substantive examination. If the invention is mature, it can be put into the market earlier, and it is easy to be copied by competitors, it should make a request for substantive examination as soon as possible, or even make a request for substantive examination at the same time as filing a patent application, because the earlier the request for substantive examination is made, the earlier it will enter the substantive examination procedure, so that the patent right can be granted as soon as possible. If the market prospect of the invention is not clear, or the invented product may appear in the market for a long time (for example, three or more years), you can submit a request for substantive examination in the future, so as to have enough time to investigate and study the market demand and the value of the invention, and then decide whether to submit a request for substantive examination.
The applicant and the patent agent shall be reminded that if an application for a patent for invention fails to make a request for substantive examination within the prescribed three-year period, the application for a patent for invention will be deemed to have been withdrawn. At present, it is stipulated that the applicant can make a request to recover his rights within two months from the date of receiving the notice of deemed withdrawal issued by the China National Intellectual Property Administration Patent Office, but only when the applicant indicates that he has requested substantive examination (such as submitting a request for substantive examination or paying a fee for substantive examination), due to incomplete procedures or justifiable reasons (such as postal delay or force majeure) and other reasons other than the applicant, will the right be deemed to be withdrawn. If the applicant has neither submitted the request for substantive examination nor paid the fee for substantive examination within the three-year period, that is, he has not submitted the request for substantive examination, the resulting withdrawal is not allowed to be restored, which will bring irreparable losses to the applicant, so as the applicant and patent agent, we should attach great importance to this period. For patent agencies, the three-year period after filing an application for a patent for invention should be monitored, and the client should be informed two months before the expiration of the period, so that the client can finally decide whether to file a request for substantive examination, so as to avoid the patent application being considered as withdrawn because it exceeds the prescribed three-year period.
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