Industrial Property Law

Once the INPI has formally examined the application, and the national defense authorities have authorized disclosure, the INPI begins drafting the preliminary search report. A thorough search of the invention's novelty must be carried out at international level. For this reason, INPI only draws up draft search reports after consultation with the European Patent Office's (EPO) Directorate General o …

Preliminary Report

Once the INPI has formally examined the application, and the national defense authorities have authorized disclosure, the INPI begins drafting the preliminary search report. A thorough search of the invention's novelty must be carried out at international level. For this reason, INPI only draws up draft search reports after consultation with the European Patent Office's (EPO) Directorate General of Searches.

The preliminary search report is drawn up on the basis of the claims filed, taking into account the description and, where applicable, the drawings. It cites the documents which may be taken into consideration to assess patentability, and is accompanied by an opinion on the patentability of the invention in the light of these documents (Article R. 612-57 IP Code). If the applicant has filed several patent applications relating to the same invention, which has been the subject of a French patent application, INPI may invite the applicant, before drawing up the preliminary search report, to provide it with the information it has on the state of the art which was taken into consideration during the examination of these other applications by the competent offices (Art. R. 612-56-1 IP Code).

The applicant is immediately notified of the preliminary search report. He/she has a period of three months from this notification to respond to the prior uses cited, failing which his/her application will be rejected. He may amend his claims or present arguments in support of his maintained claims. If the claims need to be rectified, the applicant may be authorized to amend the description accordingly. The three-month period is renewable on one occasion (Article R. 612-58 and R. 612-59 IP Code). If the subject matter of the new claims is not covered by the claims on the basis of which the search was carried out, the applicant must pay a fee for the preparation of a complementary preliminary search report. Failing this, the filing of new claims is declared inadmissible and the patent is granted with the claims on the basis of which the search was carried out (Article R. 612-61 IP Code).

The preliminary search report is made public at the same time as the patent application or, if it has not yet been drafted, as soon as it is notified to the applicant (art. R. 612-62 IP Code). It may be supplemented at any time before the search report is drawn up (Article R. 612-65 IP Code).

Industrial Property Law

283. Preliminary Report

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Les notions juridiques connexes

283. Preliminary Report

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Les notions juridiques connexes

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au contenu exclusif Livv – juristes d’entreprise