绿洲慧写 | AI 辅助专利撰写专家

Request for Substantive Examination

From Part I: Preliminary Examination Chapter 1: Preliminary Examination of Invention Patent Applications

The substantive examination procedure for invention patent applications is mainly initiated based on the applicant’s request for substantive examination.

1 Requirements for Request for Substantive Examination

The request for substantive examination should be made within three years from the application date (or the priority date, if priority is claimed), and the substantive examination fee should be paid within this period.

When requesting substantive examination, the inventor patent applicant should submit reference materials related to their invention that existed before the application date (or the priority date, if priority is claimed).

2 Examination and Processing of Request for Substantive Examination

The examination of the request for substantive examination is carried out as follows:

(1) If the applicant has not requested substantive examination three months before the expiration of the deadline, the examiner should issue a notification about the upcoming deadline.

(2) If the applicant has submitted the request for substantive examination and paid the fee within the prescribed period, but the form of the request still does not meet the requirements, the examiner can issue a notification considering the request as not made. If a notification about the upcoming deadline has been issued, the examiner should issue a notification for procedural correction, instructing the applicant to correct within a specified period. If not corrected within the period, or if the correction still does not meet the requirements, the examiner should issue a notification considering the request as not made.

(3) If the applicant has not submitted the request for substantive examination or has not paid or fully paid the substantive examination fee within the prescribed period, the examiner should issue a notification considering the application as withdrawn.

(4) If the request for substantive examination complies with the regulations, and the application enters the substantive examination procedure, the examiner should issue a notification that the invention patent application has entered the substantive examination stage.