Patent Examination guidelines

(Promulgated by Decree No. 55 of the State Intellectual Property Office on January 21, 2010, effective as of February 1, 2010)

introduction

The State Intellectual Property Office, as the administrative department for patent under The State Council, entrusts the Patent Office of the State Intellectual Property Office (hereinafter referred to as the Patent Office) to accept and approve patent applications, and the Patent Office makes various decisions in the name of the State Intellectual Property Office. The State Intellectual Property Office shall establish a Patent Reexamination Board, which shall be responsible for reexamination and examination of requests for invalidation and make decisions.

In order to deal with patent applications and requests in an objective, fair, accurate and timely manner according to law, the State Intellectual Property Office has formulated these Patent Examination Guidelines (hereinafter referred to as these Guidelines) in accordance with Article 122 of the Implementing Rules of the Patent Law.

This Guide is the embodiment of the Patent Law and its implementing rules, so it is the basis and standard for the administration of the Patent Office and the Patent Reexamination Board in accordance with the law, and it is also the rules that the parties concerned should abide by at all the above stages.

On the basis of the 2006 edition, this Guide is revised in accordance with the Patent Law of the People's Republic of China promulgated on December 27, 2008 and the Implementation Rules of the Patent Law of the People's Republic of China promulgated on January 9, 2010, as well as actual work needs, and published as a departmental regulation of the State Intellectual Property Office.

Instructions for use

1. This guide includes a preface, instructions for use, abbreviations, table of contents, body, index, revision notes, and appendices.

2. The main body of the Guide is divided into five parts: Part I (preliminary examination), Part II (substantive examination), Part III (examination of international applications entering the national stage), Part IV (examination of review and invalid claims) and Part V (Patent applications and transactions). The first, second and fourth parts are arranged in the order of the approval process of patent applications, the third part is the specific provisions for the examination of international applications entering the national stage, and the fifth part is the general rules applicable to the various procedures.

3. Each part of this guide is divided into chapters, with sections below the chapters, which are divided into four levels and arranged in order by Arabic numerals to determine their position. For example, in Chapter 3 (Novelty) of Part Two of this Guide, 2.1.2.2 (Use of disclosure) is Section 4, which falls under Section 2.1.2 (disclosure mode) of level three, section 2.1.2 under Section 2.1 (prior art) of level two, and Section 2.1 under section 2 (concept of novelty) of level one.

4. The contents of this guide include general contents and sub-contents. The general table of contents lists the names of chapters in Parts I to V and their corresponding page numbers; The sub-table of contents lists the names of each chapter and section (a total of four level sections) of the part and their corresponding page numbers. The reader can find the part and chapter of the content in the general directory according to the content he needs to find, and then find its specific location in the corresponding sub-directory.

5. In addition to the total page numbers, this guide also uses page numbers for easy reference by the reader. The total page number is located outside the bottom of the page, and the book is continuously pagination; The page numbers are located at the bottom center of the page, and the five parts of the guide text are divided into pages in the format of "(×-×)". For example, "(2-147)" indicates page 147 of the second part of the Guide text.

6. The text of this guide consists of two columns, the text description and the legal and regulatory articles, the former is located on the right side of each page, the latter is located on the left side of each page. Glossary Glossary Glossary Glossary Glossary Glossary Glossary Glossary Glossary Glossary Glossary Glossary Glossary When reading the contents in the right column of the Guide, readers can compare the contents in the laws and regulations marked in the corresponding positions in the left column for understanding.