From Part I: Preliminary Examination Chapter 1: Preliminary Examination of Invention Patent Applications
1 Preliminary Examination Qualification
After preliminary examination, patent applications, including those that have been corrected to meet preliminary examination requirements, that comply with the relevant provisions of the Patent Law and its implementing regulations and do not have obvious substantive defects, should be considered to have passed the preliminary examination. Examiners should issue a notification of preliminary examination qualification, specifying the text of the application on which the publication is based, and then proceed to the publication process.
2 Correction of Application Documents
During the preliminary examination, for patent applications with defects that can be corrected, examiners should conduct a comprehensive examination and issue a correction notification. The correction notification should specify the defects of the patent application, explain the reasons, and set a deadline for response.
3 Handling of Obvious Substantive Defects
During the preliminary examination, for patent applications with obvious substantive defects that cannot be overcome through correction, examiners should issue a notification of examination opinions. The notification should specify the substantive defects of the patent application,
explain the reasons, and set a deadline for response. Substantive defects in the application documents should only be pointed out and dealt with if they are obviously present and affect publication.
4 Response to Notifications
After receiving a correction notification or a notification of examination opinions, applicants should correct or state their opinions within the designated deadline. If the applicant corrects the patent application, they should submit a correction letter and corresponding modified replacement pages. The modifications should be aimed at the defects pointed out in the notification and must not exceed the scope of the description and claims submitted on the application date.
If the applicant fails to respond by the deadline, examiners should issue a notification of withdrawal or other notifications as appropriate. If applicants have valid reasons for being unable to respond within the designated deadline, they may request an extension. The handling of extension requests shall follow the provisions of Section 4 of Chapter 7 of Part 5 of this Guide.
Regarding cases where a patent application is deemed withdrawn due to delays caused by force majeure or other legitimate reasons, the applicant may request the restoration of rights from the Patent Office within a specified period. The handling of requests for the restoration of rights shall follow the provisions of Section 6, Chapter 7, Part 5 of this guideline.
5 Rejection of Application
If a patent application with obvious substantive defects remains unrectified after the applicant has stated their opinions or made corrections in response to the examiner’s notification of examination opinions, or if the application has formal defects that remain unrectified after two correction notifications, examiners may make a rejection decision.
The rejection decision should include the case reasons, the reasons for rejection, and the decision. The case reason part should briefly describe the examination process of the rejected application; the reasons for rejection should explain the facts, reasons, and evidence for rejection; and the decision part should clearly state that the patent application does not comply with the relevant provisions of the Patent Law and its implementing regulations and should be rejected according to the second paragraph of Article 50 of the implementing regulations.
6 Handling After Pre-Examination and Re-examination
If the applicant objects to the rejection decision, they may file a request for re-examination within the specified period. The pre-examination and post-re-examination handling of such requests should refer to the provisions of Section 8 of Chapter 8 of Part 2 of this Guide.
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