In China, the application for a patent for invention is subject to the substantive examination system, that is, not only the preliminary examination, but also the substantive examination.
substantive examination means that China National Intellectual Property Administration carefully studies the application documents of an application for a patent for invention, searches the invention for protection, and determines whether the application conforms to the provisions of the Patent Law and its detailed rules for implementation, especially the provisions on patentability, and finally decides whether to grant a patent right. The substantive examination procedure begins with the substantive examination department in China National Intellectual Property Administration receiving the application files sent by the preliminary examination department, and ends with the notification of granting the invention patent right or the decision to reject the application or withdraw the application.
Contents to be examined:
(1) Whether the subject matter of the patent application is an invention in the sense of the Patent Law and its detailed rules for implementation, and whether it falls within the scope of patentability.
(2) whether the subject matter of the patent application violates national laws, social ethics or harms the public interests.
(3) Whether the patent application meets the requirements on the singularity of invention.
(4) if the applicant applies for amendment or division of the application, whether it is beyond the scope recorded in the original specification (including the appended drawings) and the claims.
(5) in the case of applying for priority, if it is found that other people filed another patent application on the same subject between the priority date and the application date, or after searching, it is found that there are relevant comparative documents published during this period, it shall be examined whether the priority claim is established.
(6) according to the retrieved comparative documents, judge whether the technical scheme required by the invention patent application is novel and creative, and judge whether the invention required to be protected is practical.
(7) whether the description has clearly and completely explained the invention required to be protected by the invention patent application, so that the technicians in the field can realize it.
(8) whether the claim clearly and concisely expresses the scope of protection, whether the claim is based on the specification, and whether the independent claim includes the necessary technical features for solving the technical problems to be solved by the invention.