The publication of an application for a patent for invention means that China National Intellectual Property Administration will publish the description and abstract of the description recorded in the request in the bulletin of the patent for invention, and will publish the description of the application for a patent for invention and its drawings and claims in full.
China's patent law stipulates different ways of disclosure for invention patent applications and utility model and design patent applications. An application for a patent for invention shall be published at the expiration of 18 months from the date of filing; Applications for patents for utility models and designs shall be published at the time of authorization announcement. The reason is that the application for a patent for invention has to go through substantive examination, and the examination period is long. If the contents of the application are made public after the substantive examination is completed, the possibility of repeated research, investment and application on the same subject will be greatly increased, and the role of the patent system will not be well played. On the other hand, if the disclosure is late, the applicant will have more time to finally decide whether to disclose its technology or prepare for it. The time limit for publishing an application for a patent for invention is 18 months, which is mainly based on the following considerations: after filing a patent application for the first time abroad, the applicant still enjoys the priority period of 12 months in China, and may not file a patent application in China before the expiration of this time limit. However, after he filed a patent application in China, it will take some time for China National Intellectual Property Administration to conduct preliminary examination and publication, so it is stipulated to give 18 months. This is the practice adopted by most countries in the world, and it is also a reasonable time limit after practice.
Second, the preliminary examination of the application for a patent for invention
The preliminary examination is a review of the contents of the application documents, and it is a necessary procedure between accepting the application and publishing the application. The scope of the preliminary review mainly includes the following aspects:
(1) Examination of obvious substantive defects.
The obvious substantive defects that should be examined include: whether the subject matter of the application for a patent for invention obviously does not belong to the invention specified in the Patent Law and its detailed rules for implementation, whether the subject matter of the application for a patent for invention obviously violates the national laws, social ethics or harms the public interest, whether the content of the application for a patent for invention obviously falls within the scope of not granting a patent right, and whether the application obviously does not conform to the provisions on the singularity of invention. In the preliminary examination, when the examiner requests the applicant to modify the application for the purpose of publishing the application, whether the modification proposed by the applicant is obviously beyond the scope recorded in the original specification and claim, and whether the writing of the specification and claim is obviously inconsistent with the relevant provisions.
In principle, the preliminary examination does not examine substantive issues. The above-mentioned substantive defects should be limited to "obvious" and affect publication.
(two) review the subject of application and agency matters.
(3) Examining whether the application documents submitted by the applicant and other documents related to the patent application meet the formal requirements stipulated in the Patent Law and its detailed rules for implementation.
(4) Examination of some special patent applications. It belongs to the special examination of divisional application or application involving biological materials that need to be preserved.
(5) Consideration of other issues. For example, an application for a patent for invention accepted by China National Intellectual Property Administration that involves national defense secrets and needs to be kept confidential must be handed over to the relevant competent authorities for trial.
Check and wait.
Third, the substantive examination of the application for a patent for invention
In China, the application for a patent for invention is examined in substance, that is, the application for a patent for invention is not only examined initially, but also examined in substance.
Substantive examination refers to China National Intellectual Property Administration's careful study of the application documents of an application for a patent for invention, looking for the invention that needs protection, determining whether the application conforms to the provisions of the Patent Law and its detailed rules for implementation, especially the provisions on patentability, and finally making a decision on whether to grant a patent right. The procedure of substantive examination begins when the substantive examination department in China National Intellectual Property Administration receives the application documents sent by the preliminary examination department, and ends with the notice of granting the invention patent right or the decision to reject or withdraw the application. The contents of the substantive review mainly include:
(1) Whether the theme 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 that patent rights cannot be granted.
(2) Whether the subject matter of the patent application violates national laws, social morality or harms public interests.
(3) Whether the patent application meets the requirements of the singularity of invention.
(4) Whether the applicant's application for amendment or division is beyond the scope recorded in the original specification (including attached drawings) and the claims.
(5) In the case of applying for priority, if it is found that someone else filed another patent application on the same subject between the priority date and the application date, or after searching, it is found that relevant comparative documents were made public during this period, whether the priority claim is established shall be examined.
(6) According to the retrieved comparison file, judge whether the technical scheme required to be protected by the invention patent application is novel and creative, and judge whether the invention required to be protected is practical.
(seven) whether the specification has made a clear and complete description of the invention required by the application for a patent for invention, so that the technical personnel in the field can realize it.
(8) Whether the claim clearly and concisely states the scope of protection, whether the claim is based on the specification, and whether the independent claim includes the necessary technical features to solve the technical problems to be solved by the invention.
Some of the above substantive issues have been involved in the preliminary examination, but the preliminary examination only solved the obvious substantive defects and will be further reviewed in the substantive examination.
Fourth, the preliminary examination of the application for a patent for utility model
The preliminary examination of an application for a patent for utility model includes the examination of obvious substantive defects, the examination of the applicant and his agent, and the formal examination of the application documents and other documents.
Because the patent law stipulates that an application for a patent for utility model must have drawings, it is necessary to verify whether the application for a patent for utility model includes drawings and whether the drawings meet the prescribed format requirements in the preliminary examination. The preliminary examination of utility model also includes whether it violates the "principle of first application" stipulated in Article 9 of the Patent Law and whether it constitutes a review of repeated authorization.
Verb (abbreviation of verb) Preliminary examination of patent application for design
The preliminary examination of an application for a patent for design first examines whether the object it claims to protect conforms to the detailed rules for the implementation of the Patent Law, that is, whether the shape, pattern or combination of the product and the combination of color and shape and pattern are aesthetic and suitable for industrial application. Review whether the documents to be submitted, such as the request, design pictures or photos, brief descriptions, etc., are complete and meet the requirements. The preliminary examination of an application for a patent for design also includes whether it violates the principle of "applying first" and whether it constitutes a review of repeated authorization.
How do I know the patent is true?
Inquiring about the legality and ownership of patents can be searched on China National Intellectual Property Administration's website, or a copy of the patent register can be obtained in the reception hall of China National Intellectual Property Administration Patent Office.
The method of website retrieval is: go to the homepage of China National Intellectual Property Administration website, click the link of "Legal Status Inquiry" in the lower right corner, and enter the retrieval page at the entrance of "Application (Patent)No.". Enter the number and click OK.
It should be noted that when the legal status of patent application (patent) changes, the publication of patent bulletin and the login information of retrieval system will inevitably be delayed. The legal status information of the retrieval system is for reference only. The real-time and accurate legal status information should be based on the contents recorded in the patent register issued by China National Intellectual Property Administration, and a copy of the patent register must be handled in China National Intellectual Property Administration.
What is the application number, publication number, announcement number and patent number of a patent? What are their functions?
Formally, the numbering of patent documents is a simple arrangement of Arabic numerals, but these simple arrangements of Arabic numerals have very strict use occasions and different functions. Therefore, it is of great significance to find out the serial numbers of various patent documents. The number of patent documents includes application number and contribution number.
The application number is the application registration number, which is the serial number compiled by each industrial property office when accepting the patent (registration certificate) application, such as China invention patent application number 93 105342. 1. The application number can be divided into temporary application number and application number. Temporary application number is a serial number compiled by a few countries for temporary application. For example, the provisional application number of Australian patent application Au-4 1788/89 is PJ0609. The application number is the symbol that determines whether the application for invention-creation is accepted or not. The application number is usually used for file management in the process of various applications and approval within the Industrial Property Office, and it is also the basis for the applicant to communicate with them on patent affairs, such as the correction of application documents, the reply of various notices, the payment of various fees, the submission of objections or invalid requests, etc. The application number is usually the unique identification of all documents cited in the same family patent.
The submission number is the serial number compiled by each industrial property office when publishing patent documents (including public publication and reading and copying only). There are generally two ways to manage the published patent documents in various countries: one is to classify and store them according to a certain patent classification system, and the other is to store them in order according to the published contribution number (commonly called serial number documents). When the contribution numbers are arranged in the order of publication date, the serial number documents can effectively ensure the integrity of the documents. Therefore, the contribution number is the only basis for obtaining the patent specification. If uniqueness is the characteristic of application number, then the characteristic of contribution number is multiplicity. As mentioned above, once an application is accepted, it can be published once or more according to the examination and approval system and procedures, resulting in an application with only one application number but multiple submission numbers.
One-time publication: generally, it is the result of implementing the registration system and the complete review system. Usually, the authorized patent specification or announcement specification will be published. At this time, the contribution number is the patent number or announcement number.
Repeated publication: generally, it is the result of semi-review and delayed review. When an application is published in different stages, there will be different submission numbers, such as the uncensored public stage-submission number is WeChat official account, the examined and unauthorized stage-submission number is announcement number (approval number and exhibition number), and the authorized stage-submission number is patent number (certificate number).