Newsletter
INVENTION PATENT EXAMINATION STATISTICS FOR FIRST HALF OF 2007
The Intellectual Property Office recently published statistics on invention patent examination for the time period from January to June 2007, including the numbers of prerejection notifications, examination opinion notifications issued at first examination, and the numbers of patent applications rejected or allowed at first examination, as follows:
．The proportion of invention patent applications allowed at the first examination stage decreased markedly to 28% (from 60% in 2005 and 56% in 2006).
．Of the 8325 cases concluded, 72% (5975) were issued with prerejection notifications or with examination opinion notifications. This represents an increase of 32% over 2005 (40%) and 28% over 2006 (44%).
．Of the cases in which prerejection notifications or examination opinion notifications were issued, those that were subsequently rejected accounted for 25% of all the cases concluded, while those subsequently allowed accounted for 47%. This shows an increase over both 2005 (16% and 24%) and 2006 (17% and 27%).
Statistics for the first half of 2007:
．Cases concluded：8325
．Cases for which prerejection notifications or examination opinion notifications were issued：5975（72% of concluded cases）
。Cases subsequently rejected：2105（25% of concluded cases）
。Cases subsequently allowed：3870（47% of concluded cases）
．Cases allowed at first examination stage：2350（28% of concluded cases）