How can invention patent applications be granted faster? These methods to be familiar with!-Q&A.-Shenzhen deep trust patent Agency Co., LTD

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How can invention patent applications be granted faster? These methods to be familiar with!

Release Time：

2022-09-24

With the continuous increase in the number of invention patent applications in China, the review cycle of invention patents by the State Intellectual Property Office has been greatly shortened. It is reported that in 2021, the average examination cycle of China's invention patents has been reduced to 19.1 months, and the examination cycle of high-value patents has been reduced to 13.3 months. The State Knowledge Bureau said that on the basis of maintaining the stability of the examination cycle of high-value invention patents, the average examination cycle of invention patents should be further reduced, and the reform of the utility model system should be actively promoted.

So, in addition to passively waiting for the State Intellectual Property Office to further accelerate the patent examination cycle, can the applicant also take the initiative to accelerate the process of patent application?

How to shorten the review cycle and get the review results the fastest?

01, submit high-quality application documents

High-quality patent application documents can effectively avoid formal errors, reduce or avoid the opportunity to issue a notice of review opinions or a supplement at the preliminary examination stage, and eliminate the time period spent responding to these notices, effectively shorten the initial examination time, and the application is submitted directly to the initial examination.

In the actual examination process, the application document is clear, smooth, and the introduction of the technical scheme is comprehensive, which will also enable the examiner to understand the content of the invention scheme faster, shorten the time for the examiner to understand and retrieve the patent, accurately and objectively judge whether the innovation meets the requirements, reduce the number of review opinion notices, and shorten the real examination cycle.

02, handling priority review

Patent priority examination system

The Administrative Measures for Patent Priority Examination (hereinafter referred to as the "Measures") came into effect on August 1, 2017. According to Article 10 of the measures, "Where the State Intellectual Property Office agrees to conduct priority examination, it shall, from the date of consent, close the case within the following time limit: (1) The invention patent application shall issue the notice of the first examination opinion within 45 days, and close the case within one year." .

"Priority examination" may be submitted when the request for substantive examination of the invention application is made and the conditions for starting substantive examination are met after the payment of the corresponding fees.

Submit a "priority review" request to meet one of the following six circumstances, except for the fifth point, the priority review request should be signed by the relevant department of The State Council or the provincial intellectual property office recommendation:

(1) involving 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 key national development industries;

(2) involving industries that are encouraged by the people's governments of provincial and districted cities;

(3) involving the Internet, big data, cloud computing and other fields and technology or product update speed;

(4) the patent applicant or the applicant for review has made solid preparations or has begun to implement the invention, or there is evidence that others are implementing the invention;

(5) where a patent application for the same subject matter is first filed in China and an application is filed in another country or region;

(6) Other matters of great significance to the national interest or public interest require priority review.

Documents required for "priority review"

(1) Priority review of the request;

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

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

(4) If the applicant is an enterprise, it is necessary to upload a copy of the business license with the official seal.

It is worth noting that, according to the twenty-third point of the announcement on the revision of the "Patent Examination Guide" issued by the State Intellectual Property Office on September 25, 2019, where the same applicant applies for both utility model and invention on the same day (only refers to the date of application) for the same invention creation, the invention patent application is generally not given priority for examination.

The applicant may choose the patent priority examination system according to the measures to speed up the examination progress of invention patents in China.

03, timely reply to the notice of review opinions

In the process of the actual examination of the invention, 2-3 notices are generally issued, the reply period of the first review opinion notice is 4 months (priority review 2 months), the reply period of the second notice after the notice is 2 months (priority review 1 month), after the receipt of the notice, the inspector will continue to review as soon as possible and shorten the cycle.

Because the priority review can only be handled after the invention patent application is made public and enters the substantive review stage, the preliminary trial stage before this can not be accelerated, the fastest process takes about three months, and the fastest trial time after the priority review is about one year, so the entire application process is about 1 year and 3 months.

04, patent pre-examination system

Patent pre-examination means that the protection Center provides pre-examination of patent applications for the filing of the application subject, and the State Intellectual Property Office speeds up the examination of patent applications that have passed the pre-examination of the protection center to shorten the authorization period of patent applications. The patent pre-examination system has the characteristics of short examination cycle, non-legal procedures, patent quality-oriented, focusing on industry and innovation of new technologies and key links.

The patent pre-examination can be carried out after the successful filing, first of all, submit the application document to the protection center for pre-examination examination, after the pre-examination is passed, submit the application document to the Patent Office to obtain the application number and pay the fee in time, go to the protection center to submit the application number to speed up the examination and enter the fast examination channel. At present, China has established 57 intellectual property protection centers, each of which has its own filing requirements and fields.

Through pre-review and expedited cases, its grant cycle will be greatly shortened, the invention patent grant cycle from more than 20 months to 3 months.

It is worth noting that there are certain restrictions on patent applications that apply for patent preexamination:

First of all, the following patent applications shall not be processed through the fast-track examination channel: Where an international patent application filed in accordance with the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), a PCT international application entering the national phase in China, a utility model patent and an invention patent filed by the same applicant for the same invention-creation on the same day in accordance with the provisions of Article 9, paragraph 1, of the Patent Law, a sub-case application, and the need for confidential examination in accordance with Article 7 of the Implementing Rules of the Patent Law Apply.

Secondly, for the invention patent application in the intellectual property Protection Center for "patent pre-examination", for the Patent Office issued a notice of the first and second review opinions, the applicant must submit replies within 10 and 5 working days, respectively. If in the substantive examination of the invention patent application, the applicant still fails to meet the authorization conditions after replying to the notice of the second examination opinion, the patent application is automatically converted into the ordinary application procedure.

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

PS: If you are not familiar with the writing of patent application documents, it is very important to choose a professional agency, the agent understands the technical plan in place, and carries out preliminary innovative search, which can effectively avoid unnecessary form defects and avoid multiple review opinions leading to the extension of the review cycle as much as possible.

More intellectual property related issues, welcome your scan code consultation! Have questions must answer yo ~ Deep credible is willing to use professional and focus, to provide you with high-quality and efficient intellectual property agency services!

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