Patent withdrawal refers to the applicant withdrawing the patent application from the CNIPA after filing the patent application but before the granting of a patent right. There are two types of patent withdrawal: active withdrawal and passive withdrawal.
After filing the application but BEFORE the granting of a patent right
The emphasis here is on the time range of the withdrawal:
1）The first point in time, after filing the patent application
Filing an application is like a formal way to establish an official relationship between applicant and patent. Although the relationship is established before the CNIPA, the applicant still has the freedom to dump patent application at any time, that is, to withdraw the patent application.
2) Next, before the grant of patent right
Before the grant of patent right, more clearly, withdrawal of patent should be made before the procedure of registration. In China, the procedure of registration just needs to make the payment of grant fees together with the annual fee of the current year, that is, you can actively withdraw the application at any stage as long as the application does not finish the procedure of registration.
There are two types of patent withdrawal: active withdrawal and passive withdrawal
The emphasis here is on the method of withdrawal: in an active or a passive way.
Active withdrawal refers to actively file a request to withdraw the application by the applicant with the CNIPA, but passive withdrawal is generally by not responding to the official notification and let the application be deemed as withdrawal.
"Reasons for withdrawal" are roughly divided into the following 6 reasons:
1. The application documents have serious defects;
2. Lack of novelty and/or inventiveness, or lack of applicability;
3. The subject matter of an application is unpatentable under patent law in China;
4. Patent applications involving national defense security will require submission in the form of confidential patent applications;
5. Finding that the application can be optimized during the application procedure before publication, and choosing to take the initiative to withdraw and re-apply after modification and improvement the technical solutions; or
6. There are also many objective factors for passive withdrawal, such as economic, environmental, and natural disasters that will not be elaborated here.
However, active withdrawal is generally not recommended. Once the request of withdrawal is approved, there is no chance to restore it in China. BUT if the applicant lets application to be withdrawn by taking no action, the applicant still has chance to restore it within the time limit with payment.
One more thing, please don't forget, if an applicant chooses active withdrawal of the patent application, the applicant may have the chance to apply for a refund from CNIPA.
If an applicant submits a request of active withdrawal of the patent application and the request is approved before entering the substantive examination procedure, the substantive examination fee may be refunded automatically if the applicant paid the substantive examination fee in advance.
In addition, according to Notice No. 272 of the CNIPA, for a patent application entering the substantive examination stage, if the request for withdrawing the application is made before the deadline to respond to the first Office Action (except when the response has been submitted), the applicant can receive a 50% refund of the substantive examination fee voluntarily.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.