Does substantive examination have to be done after publication?

When the inventor of a patent wants to obtain patent rights, he needs to apply for registration of the invention patent. After the applicant submits the application, the patent management department will examine the patent. The examination is divided into two steps: preliminary examination and substantive examination. Then the substantive examination Does the review have to be done after the announcement? The editor of Legal Savior Network will answer the question for readers below.

Is substantive examination required after publication?

Substantial examination is an invention patent application The second stage of the approval process is mainly to determine the patentability of the invention from a technical perspective, that is, to examine whether it meets the requirements of novelty, inventiveness and practicality stipulated in the patent law.

Generally speaking, the substantive examination begins after the applicant submits a request for substantive examination to the Patent Office and pays the examination fee. However, for inventions that have a significant impact on the national economy and people's livelihood, when the Patent Office deems it necessary, it may conduct a substantive examination of the invention patent application on its own.

Request for substantive examination shall be made from the date of application The request can be made within three years. This request can be made at the same time as the invention patent application is submitted, or after the invention patent application is published, or later, so that the applicant has ample time to make a proper valuation of his invention. If the applicant does not request substantive examination within the above three-year period for legitimate reasons, the application will be deemed to have been withdrawn.

In the process of substantive examination of an invention patent application, an important task of the patent office is to conduct a literature search. The Patent Cooperation Treaty (abbreviated as PCT) stipulates that its member countries must search the "minimum amount of documents" published by the seven designated countries and two international organizations since 1920 and 152 5-year patent documents before approving patents. Patent documents. The examiner searches in a targeted manner for documents directly related to the invention for which the patent is being applied for. as a basis for determining whether the invention is patentable.

The examiner shall notify the applicant in writing of his/her opinions during the substantive examination and require the applicant to state his opinions or make comments on some content in the application that does not comply with the provisions of the patent law. Revise. This correspondence can be conducted once or multiple times depending on the circumstances. Under special circumstances, the examiner and the applicant may also meet face-to-face to explain some issues that are difficult to express clearly in person.

The Patent Office will notify the applicant of the substantive examination results in the form of a decision letter and make an announcement. There are two types of decision letters:

(1 )Rejection decision: If the patent office still believes that the invention patent application does not comply with the provisions of the patent law after the applicant has stated its opinions or made modifications, it will reject it and list the reasons for rejection in detail.

(2) Approval decision: If no reason for rejection is found during the substantive examination, the Patent Office shall make a decision to grant the invention patent right, issue an invention patent certificate, and register and announce it.

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