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Publication date: 23.05.2024
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Formal examination of an application for the issuance of a patent for an invention
ТекстIn accordance with Clause 3.1 of the Rules for considering an application for an invention and an application for a utility model, approved by the order of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine dated 15.03.2002 No. 197, Ukrpatent conducts a formal examination of applications for which decisions have been made to set the date of submission. Examination of the application on formal grounds is carried out without a special request of the applicant.
In accordance with Part 9 of Art. 16 of the Law of Ukraine "On Protection of Rights to Inventions and Utility Models" dated December 15, 1993 No. 3687-XII, during the formal examination:
- it is determined whether the applied object belongs to the objects of technology specified in Part 2 of Art. 6 of Law No. 3687-XII, and whether it does not belong to the objects of technology specified in Part 3 of Article 6 of the Law;
- the application is checked for compliance with the formal requirements of Article 12 of the Law and the Rules for drawing up and submitting an application for an invention and an application for a utility model, approved by the order of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine dated January 22, 2001 No. 22;
- the application fee payment document is checked for compliance with established requirements.
Legal protection is granted to an invention that, by its content and direction, does not contradict public order, the principles of humanity and morality and meets the conditions of patentability.
Accordingly, Part 2 of Art. 6 of Law No. 3687-XII establishes a list of objects that can be protected.
Part 3 establishes a list of objects to which legal protection does not apply.
If priority was declared, the application is checked in accordance with Art. 15 of Law No. 3687-XII.
The application is checked for compliance in terms of compliance with the application submission procedure in accordance with clauses 16.2, 16.4 of Rules No. 22, including the presence and correctness of the power of attorney.
The presence of documents in the application is checked in accordance with Clause 3.1 of Rules No. 22.
Compliance with the requirements for application documents established by sections 3-15 of Rules No. 22, which can be checked without analyzing the substance of the invention, is checked.
If there are additional materials in the application materials, compliance with the requirements for their registration and submission procedure is checked in accordance with Clause 7 of Rules No. 197.
Ukrpatent also checks the correctness of the determination of classification indices in accordance with the current version of the International Patent Classification. If the applicant did not determine the indexes, they are determined by Ukrpatent.
If, during the formal examination of the application, it is found that it was drawn up in violation of the requirements established by Rules No. 22, the applicant is sent a request informing about the detected inconsistencies or the absence of some documents.
Within 2 months from the date of receipt of the request, the applicant must provide missing or corrected documents.
The grounds for sending a request are established in Clause 3.3.2 of Rules No. 197.
If the requested documents are not received within 2 months, the applicant is sent a decision to refuse to issue a patent.
According to the result of consideration of all available materials, Ukrpatent:
- sends a notification about the completion of the formal examination and the possibility of conducting a qualification examination of the application;
- a decision on refusal to issue a patent for an invention.
If the application for the issuance of a patent for an invention contains all the necessary documents, all the requirements for them are met, and the claimed invention does not belong to the list of objects that are not protected, the applicant is sent a notification about the completion of the formal examination and the possibility of conducting a qualification examination of the application.
According to Art. 16 of Law No. 3687-XII after the expiration of 18 months from the date of submission of the application for the issuance of a patent for an invention, and if priority is declared, then from the date of its priority, Ukrpatent publishes information about the application in its official bulletin.
Clause 3.4.6 of Rules No. 197 establishes the grounds, in the presence of which the applicant is sent a decision on refusal to issue a patent for an invention.
The next stage of obtaining a patent for an invention is the qualification examination of the application, which is carried out after its receipt by the expert institution.
You can learn more about the initial stage of obtaining a patent for an invention and the qualification examination of an application on our website. Preliminary examination and establishment of the date of submission of an application for the issuance of a patent for an invention.
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