Under the current patent granting systems in force in Spain, if your opt for the General Procedure, the State of the Art Report is not binding and is only used for helping to assess the patent.
If this SAR reveals that the patent application is not new or lacks inventive step, the applicant can:
- decide not to continue with the procedure and withdraw the application.
- make the changes permitted by law in order to try to improve the patent application, or opt to continue the procedure via the preliminary examination route.
- continue with the general granting procedure. In this case, the risk is that, once the patent has been granted, a third party may try to cancel it because it does not comply with legal requirements.
