What is the scope of confidential patent application?

Brief introduction: If the content of a patent application involves national defense interests, it shall be determined in secret by the National Defense Patent Office. If confidentiality is required, it shall be handed over to the National Defense Patent Office for examination in time, and the examiner shall issue a notice to the applicant to hand over the patent application to the National Defense Patent Office; Where confidentiality is unnecessary, the examiner shall issue a notice of consent to confidentiality review, informing the applicant that the patent application will not be kept confidential and shall be treated as a general patent application.

1. Scope of confidentiality

The scope of confidentiality stipulated in Article 4 of the Patent Law refers to inventions and creations involving national security or vital interests.

According to the first paragraph of Article 7 of the Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Patent Law, if the patent application accepted by the Patent Office involves national defense interests and needs to be kept confidential, it shall be submitted to the national defense patent agency for examination in time.

According to the second paragraph of Article 7 of the Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Patent Law, if the Patent Office considers that the accepted application for a patent for invention or utility model involves significant interests other than national security or national defense interests and needs to be kept confidential, it shall promptly make a decision to treat it as a confidential patent application and notify the applicant.