How to respond to the Notice of Reasons for Refusal 1

A: In the preliminary examination or substantive examination procedure, if the examiner finds that the application has obvious defects, format defects or substantive defects, he or she will notify the applicant to amend or correct the application within the specified time in the form of a notice of correction or a notice of reasons for refusal, or to state his opinions on the defects pointed out by the examiner. The applicant must reply to this, and if the applicant fails to respond without a valid reason, the application will be deemed withdrawn.

Therefore, the following aspects should be taken into account in responding to the questions raised in the Notice of Office Action:

1) Comply with the deadline for replying. ** The person should pay attention to the time limit specified by the examiner in the notice, and calculate the deadline for reply based on the date of issuance by the approval authority in the upper right corner of the notice. If the applicant is unable to reply within the prescribed time limit, he or she shall request an extension of the time limit before the expiration of the time limit and submit two copies of the request for extension of the time limit.

2) Reply to all the contents of the notice one by one. If an office action is omitted, it may be deemed that the response has not been met on time, resulting in the application being deemed withdrawn. The reply may agree with the examiner's opinion, and make corrections or amendments to the application according to the examination opinion; It is also possible to disagree with the examiner's opinion and state the applicant's opinion and reasons.

3) The reply shall use the format of the opinion statement uniformly formulated by the examination and approval authority. Except for the addition, deletion or modification of individual words, it can be directly stated in the opinion statement; When there are many revisions, in addition to the explanation in the statement of opinion, a replacement page in the prescribed format shall be submitted.

4) The amendment to the application document shall not exceed the scope of the original specification in terms of substance, otherwise the application will be rejected.

According to the provisions of the detailed rules for the implementation of the Trademark Law of the People's Republic of China, there is no provision on what is called in the trademark office action response document, and the parties concerned can make corresponding replies according to the notice received.

Relevant legal provisions.

Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Trademark Law of the People's Republic of China

Article 60 The Trademark Review and Adjudication Board may, at the request or actual needs of the parties, decide to conduct an oral hearing on the application for review.

If the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board decides to conduct an oral hearing of the application, it shall notify the parties in writing 15 days before the oral hearing, informing them of the date, place and assessors of the oral hearing. The parties shall reply within the time limit specified in the notice.

If the applicant does not reply or participate in the oral hearing, the application shall be deemed to be withdrawn, and the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board shall notify the applicant in writing; If the respondent does not reply or participate in the oral hearing, the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board may be absent from the review.

1. What is a patent office opinion?

A patent office opinion is an opinion that has been examined by the patent office at the time of the patent application and is pointed out because it lacks some of the provisions of a patent application, so how does the patent office handle the opinion? What are the problems encountered when applying for a patent, or the lack of a certain requirement? Usually, when a patentee applies for a patent, there is often a lack of patent information, or the lack of patent novelty is the biggest problem, so how to do a good job of answering the office action?

Related article: "Effectiveness of Substantive Examination".

Our patent application has such a procedure, patent application, acceptance, preliminary examination, substantive examination, authorization and issuance, because the patent is different, so the patent application will have different examinations, and the invention patent application is the above process; However, this is not the case with the design patent application and utility model patent application, and they skip the substantive examination process for a long time, so the above patent examination action documents are mainly reflected in the preliminary examination process.

If the application documents are not submitted as required, the patent application will not be approved, and a notice will be issued to amend the patent documents; If the patent lacks one of the three characteristics of the patent, then the patent office will bury and issue a patent examination opinion, and the patentee needs to reply accordingly.

Generally speaking, the response to the office action needs to make some adjustments according to the implementation of the patent by the patent office, and through the adjustment of the patent, the patent application will be perfectly matched with the patent examination process, but the novelty of the patent is sometimes not easy to correct, which is the characteristic of the lack of novelty of the duplicate items of the patent; In this case, the patent application can only be abandoned. Therefore, it is sometimes recommended that patent applicants need to conduct an in-depth search of the patent in the early stage.

When the parties receive the notice of the trademark office action, they can reply, which is also the response of the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board according to the actual situation of the parties. At the same time, in the patent office action, the office action response needs to make some adjustments according to the patent office's implementation of the patent, and the office action response needs to be completed within a certain time limit.

1. What are the commonly used response methods in the signing of the office action? The "Patent Examination Guidelines" of the State Intellectual Property Office (CNIPA) are commonly used in the response to office actions, which stipulate that the applicant shall reply to the office action notice issued by the patent office within the time limit specified in the notice of lease. The applicant shall reply to the office action notice within the specified time limit in the form of an opinion statement or amendment prescribed by the Patent Office.

The examiner may understand that the applicant has not raised a specific objection to the office action in the office action notice, nor has he overcome the defects in the application documents pointed out in the office action notice. The applicant's reply shall be submitted to the receiving department of the Patent Office. A reply document submitted directly to the examiner or a frank letter soliciting opinions is not considered a formal reply and has no legal effect.

2. Signature of the reply If the applicant has not entrusted a patent ** institution, the statement of opinion or amendment submitted by the applicant shall have the signature or seal of the applicant; If the applicant is a unit, it shall affix the official seal; Where there are two or more applicants, their representatives may sign or affix their seals. If the applicant has entrusted a patent agency, its reply shall be stamped by the patent agency it entrusts, and signed or sealed by the patent grantor designated in the power of attorney. After the change of the patentee, the patentee shall sign or seal the changed patentee.

If the applicant has not entrusted a patent** institution, if the reply does not have the signature or seal of the applicant (when there are more than two applicants, the signature or seal of all the applicants must be present, or at least the signature or seal of their representatives), the examiner shall return the reply to the preliminary examination department for processing. If the applicant has entrusted a patent** institution, if the reply is not stamped by the patent** institution, or if the applicant himself has made a reply, the examiner shall return the reply to the preliminary examination department for processing. No matter when, the state attaches more importance to and is strict about patented inventions, so that more people can better invest in patent research and development, because their rights and interests are protected by the state, that is, there are some people who want to imitate, but they are not useful, because people say that there is a patent certificate, which makes the patented invention have a better protection layer.