How to speed up the progress of patent examination and get patent authorization quickly

With the continuous growth of patent applications in China, the State Intellectual Property Office has gradually shortened the patent review cycle. ToIn 2021, the average examination cycle of invention patents in China has beenShortenTo19.1 months, Guozhi Desk2020said,Future4 years,China's patent examination cycle will be furtherPressure reductionA quick review has been made. So, for the applicant, whether can take the initiative to speed up the patent application procedures? How to shorten the examination cycle, the fastest to get the examination results? This article from the patent priority examination and patent pre-trial system to accelerate the current domestic patent examination procedures are briefly introduced.

1. priority review

For invention patents, the review cycle is generally longer than that of utility models because they also need to go through the substantive examination stage..In this regard, in the process of invention patent examination, the patent priority examination system can be used to speed up the examination process.

《Patent priorityCheck the management measures in the provisions:"If the State Intellectual Property Office agrees to conduct a priority review, it shall close the case within the following time limits from the date of consent: (1) The invention patent application shall issue a notice of the first review opinion within 45 days and close the case within one year".

The priority examination may be made when the application for the invention submits a request for substantive examination and the conditions for the commencement of substantive examination are met after the corresponding fees have been paid. So whether all invention patents can speed up the examination process through priority examination? Of course, the answer is no. One of the following six conditions must be met when submitting a request for priority examination:

(1) It involves energy conservation and environmental protection, new generation information technology, biology, high-end equipment manufacturing, new energy, new materials, new energy vehicles, intelligent manufacturing and other national key development industries;

(2) Involving industries that are mainly encouraged by the people's governments at the provincial level and at the municipal level divided into districts;

(3) Involving Internet, big data, cloud computing and other fields and fast technology or product updates;

((4) The patent applicant or the applicant for reexamination has made preparations or has begun to implement, or there is evidence to prove that others are implementing their inventions and creations;

(5) filing a patent application in China for the first time on the same subject matter to other countries or regionsApplication madeFirst application in China;

(6) other national interest or public interest of great significance to the priority review.

In addition, the priority review requires the preparation of the following documents:

(1) Priority review of the request;

(2) Existing technology or existing design information materials and relevant certification documents;

(3) In addition to the above point (5), the request for priority review shall be signed by the relevant department of the State Council or the provincial intellectual property office for recommend opinions;

(4) If the applicant is an enterprise, a copy of the business license stamped with the official seal shall be uploaded.

Applicants can choose the patent priority examination system to speed up the examination of invention patents in China. After the priority examination is qualified, the patent authorization time is generally: invention.7-12 months; utility model, appearance about 2 months.

SpecialNote: If the same applicant applies for both utility model and invention for the same invention-creation on the same day (only the filing date), the application for a patent for invention will not be examined first.

2. patent pre-examination system

Patent pre-examination means that the protection center provides pre-examination of patent applications for the subject of filing, and the State Intellectual Property Office speeds up the examination of patent applications that have passed the pre-examination of the protection center, thus shortening the patent application authorization cycle. The patent pre-examination system is characterized by short examination cycle, non-statutory procedures, patent quality-oriented, focusing on industry and innovation of new technologies and key links..The following table shows the names of intellectual property protection centers and a summary of the technical fields to be applied for. Applicants can choose according to their needs:

The choice of patents to speed up the examination process through pre-trial does not limit their type, that is, invention patents and utility model patents can be heard through the pre-trial channel. When the patent application meets the above-mentioned technical fields, the applicant can choose the corresponding protection center to submit patent documents, through pre-examination and accelerated cases, the authorization period will be greatly shortened, the authorization period of the invention patent from22 months reduced to 6 monthsThe utility model is shorter..

However, there are certain restrictions on the application of pre-patent patents:

First of all, the cases that cannot be handled through the pre-trial channel are:

(1) an international patent application filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT);

(2) According to the first paragraph of Article 9 of the Patent Law, the utility model patent and invention patent applied for by the same applicant on the same day for the same invention-creation;

(3) There are low quality problems;

((4) Involving national security or vital interests;

Note that the above (2) It is stipulatedUtility model patents and invention patents applied for by the same invention.Can not pass the pre-trial channel at the same time, therefore, the applicant can only choose one to go through the pre-trial channel.

Secondly, for the invention patent application in the intellectual property protection center for patent pre-examination, the protection center will put forward a notice of preset opinions on the patent. For the first notice of pre-trial opinion, the applicant mustReply within 10 working days, for a notice of second pre-trial opinion, the applicant must5 working daysSubmit reply comments. If the applicant is against the secondPre-trialIf the conditions for authorization have not been met after the reply to the notice of opinion, the patent application shall automatically be converted to the ordinary application procedure.

The applicant may, according to the situation of the patent application to be applied for accelerated examination, apply for patent pre-examination in order to speed up the progress of patent examination in China after filing with the corresponding protection center.

3. other expedited review options

In addition to choosing the above two procedures to speed up the review, applicants can also pay attention to the following points during the ordinary review process to speed up the review process:

(1) When submitting a patent application, choose to disclose it in advance, or at the same time make a request for substantive examination to speed up the process of invention patent examination. If the patent examination process does not choose to disclose in advance, it will be 1 from the date of application.8It will not be made public until a month later, and for patents that do not have a request for substantive examination at the same time, it will be made public after the initial examination,The fact that substantive reviews are conducted only after requests for substantive reviews have been submitted within three years is not conducive to expediting the review.

(2）Submit high quality application documentsHigh-quality patent application documents can effectively avoid formal errors, reduce or avoid the opportunity to issue notice of examination opinions or correction documents at the preliminary examination stage, and also save the time period spent in replying to these notices, thus effectively shortening the preliminary examination time. In the process of actual examination, the high-quality application documents introduce the technical scheme comprehensively, which will also enable the examiner to understand the contents of the invention scheme more quickly, shorten the time for the examiner to understand and search the patent, accurately and objectively judge whether the innovation meets the requirements, reduce the number of times the notice of examination opinions is issued, and shorten the actual examination cycle.

(3)Timely reply to the notice of examination opinionsInvention patents are generally issued during the trial.For 2-3 notifications, the response period for the first review notice is 4 months, and the response period for the second notice is 2 months. After receiving the notice,ApplicantThe reviewer will continue the review as early as possible to shorten the cycle.

No matter which procedure is chosen, applicants need to comprehensively consider the specific circumstances of their patent applications and the characteristics of each procedure, and choose the appropriate procedure to speed up the patent examination process in China.