Within eight days following receipt of the patent application at the SPTO, the Office will conduct an examination to determine whether it meets the requirements to give a submission date, notifying the applicant of the examination results and the submission date assigned to the patent application.
For these procedures, current legislation does not indicate any deadlines and, therefore, only the deadlines in the commitment undertaken by the SPTO apply; that is, the first notification of failure to pass the formal and technical examination will be issued 6 months prior to the publication of the patent in the Official Industrial Property Gazette with the State of the Art Report, which will be sent to the interested party at least 15 prior to publication.
In no case will the notification of defects be made sooner than 2 months from the submission date, as it must be kept secret in accordance with art. 119 of the Patents Act during said period.
As established in article 32 of the Patents Act, applications must be published once 18 months have elapsed from the date of submission of the application (or priority), once the official examination has been passed and the applicant has requested the State of the Art Report. The publication may take place sooner, if the applicant so requests, such as in the Accelerated Grant Programme. The SPTO will make said publication and draw up the State of the Art Report in the general procedure as soon as possible after this 18-month period, depending on availability in each technical area.
When the applicant chooses the granting procedure without preliminary examination, the SPTO will grant the patent within 8 months from the publication date of the general granting procedure resumption, which occurs upon request by the applicant within a maximum of 3 months of the publication of the State of the Art Report. During this period, which interrupts the granting procedure (Art. 36.3, Patents Act), the applicant may request a preliminary examination or express their wish to continuing the general granting procedure.
It should be noted that during this 8-month period, all of the compulsory intermediate deadlines must be met, such as the two-month period for comments on the State of the Art Report by third parties, which is followed by a period of the same amount of time during which the applicant responds to these comments or makes any comments of their own on the report.
In processing the patent applications subject to preliminary examination, the SPTO will send the applicant the first notification of the results of the examination within 6 months of publication in the Official Industrial Property Gazette of the resumption of the granting procedure with preliminary examination upon request by the applicant. This period includes the legally established 2-month period during which third parties may submit oppositions. The decision on the application will be issued within 18 months, also from the aforementioned publication date, granting it or rejecting it following communications between the applicant and the SPTO when the examination notified initially was not positive or oppositions were submitted.
Decisions on registering patent transfers and contract licences shall be handed down within 3 months after the application has been submitted if the documentation is free of errors and, otherwise, within six months. For full and compulsory licences, given their specialisation and rarity, a general period of 6 months has been established, instead of the 8 months established by the Act.
For certifications and legal copies related to patent applications or patents granted, the deadline for issue and delivery to the interested parties is 1 month from receipt of the request. Titles will also be delivered within one month from publication of the granting in the Official Industrial Property Gazette.
Applications for the restoration of rights related to patent applications or patents granted (including European patents) will be resolved by the SPTO within 3 months when the applications are free of defects and, otherwise, within 4 months.
