In the national stage of patent application, the official notice is like a key bridge for the applicant to communicate with the China National Intellectual Property Administration (hereinafter referred to as the "State Intellectual Property Office") and the Intellectual Property Protection Center (hereinafter referred to as the "Protection Center"). Its content directly determines the application process, the status of rights and the direction of subsequent operations.

This article will systematically sort out the common types, applicable scenarios, and key operational points of official notifications for invention patents, utility model patents, design patents, and PCT applications entering the Chinese national phase, based on actual business scenarios, to help applicants grasp the pace of the process and effectively avoid compliance risks.

Pre review related notice

Quick review of 'front signal lights'

Patent pre examination is an important way to improve examination efficiency, and relevant notices are issued by the Protection Center. Although the format is slightly different from the regular notices of the State Intellectual Property Office, the core information is very clear. When the applied technical field does not meet the scope of acceptance by the Protection Center, a notice of pre examination rejection will be issued. However, this does not affect the submission of subsequent ordinary applications, but the policy of accelerated examination cannot be enjoyed.

If it meets the requirements of the pre-approval technical field and form, a pre-approval acceptance notice will be issued, which marks the formal entry of the application into the pre-approval review process. The pre-approval review cycle is relatively short, and during the review process, a notice of pre-approval review opinion may be issued, requiring the applicant to quickly modify the document in response to the pointed issues. If no response is given or the modifications are not qualified within the deadline, it will affect the pre-approval result.

Finally, if the preliminary review is qualified, the applicant needs to submit a formal application to the State Intellectual Property Office as soon as possible and pay the fees. If it meets the relevant provisions of the rapid review after examination, the subsequent examination will be carried out through the fast track; If the pre-approval is not passed, the application can still be submitted to the State Intellectual Property Office as a regular application, and the examination period will be executed according to the usual standards, without affecting the validity of the application itself.

Ordinary country application for core notification letter

The 'navigator' of the basic process

For ordinary applications that have not participated in the preliminary review, the process starts from the acceptance stage. If the application lacks core documents such as request letters and instructions, is not written in Chinese, or does not comply with the prescribed format, a notice of non acceptance of the patent application will be received. At this time, the defects need to be corrected and resubmitted. After passing the formal examination, a patent application acceptance notice will be issued, which clearly records key information such as the application date and application number, which is an important basis for subsequent claims.

In terms of payment, there are notices for application fee payment and approval notices for fee reduction. In terms of fee reduction ratio, a single applicant or unit can reduce their payment by 85%, and two or more applicants or units can reduce their payment by 70%. The timing of fee reduction requests also varies. The application for fee reduction must be submitted simultaneously with the patent application, while other fee reductions can be submitted two and a half months before the payment deadline expires.

It should be noted that failure to pay on time will result in the application being considered withdrawn; If the request for fee reduction is not approved, the full application fee must be paid, but additional requests for fee reduction for other fees can be made in the future. If a request for delayed examination is made for a utility model or design (up to 1 year for utility models and 36 months for designs), the acceptance notice will clearly indicate the delay period.

Entering the initial review stage, it mainly involves reviewing feedback on formal and significant substantive defects. Correction notice and procedure correction notice are common types. The situation of correction includes correction of priority documents, correction of missing power of attorney, correction of attached drawings, etc., among which the submission of attached drawings may result in a change in the application date.

There are differences in the consequences for these two types of notifications. If the notification for handling procedures is not responded to within the deadline or the correction is not qualified, the relevant procedures shall be deemed not to have been submitted; Failure to respond to the notice of correction within the deadline will result in the application being deemed withdrawn, and if the correction is not qualified, it may be rejected.

For example, if a patent application is filed by a mainland Chinese applicant and an agency submits documents to the State Intellectual Property Office, but lacks a power of attorney and receives a notice of correction for handling procedures, failure to respond on time or failure to make corrections will be deemed as failure to appoint a patent agency; If the applicant is a foreign applicant or an applicant from Hong Kong, Macau, or Taiwan (without a regular residence or business office in mainland China) and fails to submit a power of attorney and receive a notice of correction, failure to respond within the time limit will result in the application being deemed withdrawn.

When the prior application has been authorized, belongs to a divisional application, does not meet other requirements of domestic priority, or fails to pay or fully pay the priority claim fee on time, a notice of deemed non claim of priority will be issued.

Special attention should be paid to the fact that when claiming domestic priority, a prior application deemed withdrawn cannot be requested for restoration, even if the priority is later withdrawn, a prior application deemed withdrawn cannot be requested for restoration. If there are obvious substantive defects in the application documents, such as violating Article 5, Article 25 of the Patent Law, etc., a notice of examination opinion will be received (at the initial review stage), and targeted opinions or document modifications are required.

The actual review stage is the in-depth review and feedback of technical solutions. For invention patent applications, after the applicant submits a request for substantive examination and pays the examination fee, a notice of entering the substantive examination stage will be issued. If a request for delayed examination is made (up to 3 years), the notice will indicate the delay period.

The Office Action (OA) is crucial at this stage. The response period for invention patent application OA1 is 4 months, and OA2 and subsequent applications are 2 months (can be extended once, up to a maximum of 2 months); The deadline for responding to utility model and appearance design is 2 months. For fast track review cases (such as pre qualification transfer), the response period for invention patent application OA1 is 10 working days, and OA2 is 5 working days, which must be strictly followed.

OA1 usually comes with an initial search report, and subsequent OA may include supplementary search reports due to the applicant's modification of documents, adjustment of search scope, and other reasons.

In addition, after the invention patent enters the substantive examination, if the application is voluntarily withdrawn before the expiration of the OA1 response period (except for those who have already submitted response opinions), 50% of the substantive examination fee can be refunded. When the examiner considers that the subject matter of the application lacks unity, a divisional notice will be issued, and opinions or document modifications must be made within 2 months. Failure to respond within the time limit will result in the application being deemed withdrawn.

Special Notification for PCT International Application Entering the National Phase in China

Exclusive guidance for unique processes

The process of entering the national phase of PCT application in China is different from that of ordinary application, and there are some core special notices. When submitting documents, if the "early processing" option is not selected in the Chinese national phase declaration (the deadline of 30 months from the priority date has not yet expired, requesting early processing), a special letter for review business will be received, and relevant procedures must be completed before proceeding with the review. Otherwise, it will be processed after the deadline expires.

After meeting the entry requirements, a notice of entry into the Chinese national phase and a notice of initial qualification for the invention application will be issued together (ordinary applications will be issued separately). If they do not meet the requirements, they will receive a notice of non entry into the Chinese national phase. When it comes to PCT specific issues such as translation modifications, inconsistencies between application documents and international bureau records, a correction notice is issued upon entering the Chinese national phase notification, and targeted correction is required. Only after the correction is qualified will further preliminary examination notification be received.

When a PCT international application enters the national phase, if the additional fee is not paid in the international phase, resulting in some of the topics not being searched, and the applicant requests to retain that part of the topics, the examiner will issue a notice of payment of the singularity restoration fee after determining that the singularity judgment is correct. Failure to pay on time will result in the withdrawal of that part of the topics.

In addition, unlike ordinary national applications, PCT applications entering the national phase may also encounter problems related to correcting translation errors. Applicants can seize the opportunity to actively correct them. Invention patents should be prepared for publication or within 3 months from the date of receiving the actual examination notice, and utility models should be prepared for authorization announcement; Passive correction refers to the situation where the examiner discovers a translation error that leads to a defect (which is not present in the original text), or modifies a document beyond the scope of the original translation, and issues a notice to correct the translation error as required.

Notice of Authorization and Rights Maintenance Stage

The 'key evidence' for the effectiveness and continuation of rights

In terms of authorization related notifications, when there is no reason for rejection in the actual examination of invention patents, utility models, and design preliminary examinations, a notification of granting patent rights and a notification of handling registration procedures will be issued together. Registration procedures must be completed and payment must be made within 2 months (this period cannot be extended). Failure to do so will be deemed as giving up the acquisition of patent rights.

When the same applicant applies for invention and utility model patents on the same day, if no reason for rejection is found after examination of the invention patent application, the applicant will be notified to declare the abandonment of the utility model patent right within the prescribed time limit, and a notice to avoid duplicate grant of patent rights will be issued, or the examination opinion of the application will indicate the abandonment of the authorized utility model patent. The applicant shall avoid duplicate authorization by waiving the utility model patent right, and the waiver statement shall take effect from the date of the announcement of the invention patent authorization. If there are errors in the content of the patent notification, an authorization correction notice will be issued to clarify the corrected information.

The notification of rights maintenance is also crucial. The approval notice for patent term compensation applies to pharmaceutical related patents (products, preparation methods, pharmaceutical uses), or other eligible patents. The deadline for applying for compensation for invention patents is within 3 months from the date of authorization announcement, and patents for inventions and utility models applied for on the same day are not applicable;

In addition, for compensation for the patent term of new drug related inventions, a request must be made within 3 months from the date of obtaining marketing authorization for the new drug in China. Those who meet the conditions will have a clear compensation period and a new patent expiration date. If the compensation period exceeds one year, annual fees must be paid according to regulations.

After the patent application is granted the patent right, the patentee is required to pay the annual fee on time. If the fee is not paid on time, a payment notice will be received and the payment must be made within 6 months from the expiration date (including a late fee, which will be charged 5% of the annual fee for the current year based on the number of overdue months). Failure to pay on time will result in the termination of the patent right, and a notice of termination of the patent right will be issued.

Notice of Invalidation Stage

The 'Dispute Resolution Signal' of Stability of Rights

There are multiple core notifications at this stage for invalidation requests for granted patents (including terminated or abandoned patents).

After passing the formal examination, the request for invalidation will be accepted and a notice of invalidation request acceptance will be issued; When there are situations where the requester has not paid or fully paid the request fee, or the request does not comply with regulations, an invalidation request will be issued, which will be deemed as a notice of non submission or a notice of non acceptance. If the form of the request does not comply with the regulations, a notice of invalidation request correction will be issued, and the response period is 15 days.

When the panel forwards documents from both parties or provides review opinions, it will issue a notice of document transfer or a notice of invalidation request review. Failure to respond within the deadline will not affect the trial. When an oral hearing is required, a notice of oral hearing will be issued. Failure to respond or participate in the oral hearing by the requester will result in the request being deemed withdrawn, and the patentee may be absent from the hearing.

The parties shall submit foreign language evidence accompanied by a Chinese translation. Failure to submit on time shall be deemed as non submission; If there are objections to the translation submitted by the other party, they must be raised within the specified deadline. Failure to raise objections will be deemed as no objections.

Ultimately, the review conclusion will be notified through an invalidation request review decision, including complete invalidity, partial invalidity, and maintaining validity. When the requester withdraws the request or the case is concluded, a notice of invalidation of the case closure will be issued.

Notice of Review Stage

Reject the "right relief signal" of the application

If the applicant is dissatisfied with the rejection decision, they may submit a re examination within 3 months. When the request is submitted after the deadline, the re examination fee is not fully paid, or the request does not comply with the regulations, a notice of non acceptance of the re examination will be issued or deemed not to have been submitted; Receiving the notification of acceptance for reexamination indicates that the reexamination application has been accepted. If the request form does not comply with the regulations, a notice of re examination and correction will be issued, and the response period is 15 days.

When the panel reviews and provides opinions or arranges for oral review, they will issue a notice of re examination or a notice of oral review. The deadline for responding to the notice of re examination is one month. Failure to respond within the deadline will result in the request for re examination being deemed withdrawn. The review decision includes revoking the rejection (returning the case to the original examination department for further examination, possibly issuing a new OA or direct authorization), and maintaining the rejection. When the request for re examination is withdrawn, deemed withdrawn, or the trial is concluded, a notice of closure of the re examination case will be issued.

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Other important notes

Although the notices summarized in this article cover the core scenarios of the entire patent application process, actual business may also involve qualified notices for changes in bibliographic data procedures, notices related to confidentiality examination, refund approval notices, etc., which need to be paid attention to according to specific request types.

The response and payment deadlines for various types of notices involving time limits are statutory or designated deadlines. Failure to do so will result in serious consequences such as withdrawal and loss of rights. It is recommended that the applicant or agency establish a time limit management mechanism. The content of the notice involves professional legal judgment and document modification requirements. If there are any doubts about the content of the notice, it is recommended to consult a professional patent agency in a timely manner to avoid affecting the rights claim due to improper operation.

Each official notification in the patent application process carries key information, and accurate interpretation and timely response are the core to ensure the smooth progress of the application and safeguard legitimate rights and interests. I hope this article can provide clear process guidance for applicants and IP practitioners, helping everyone avoid detours on the road of patent application!