First oral hearing in the context of the Patent Examination process

In accordance with Royal Decree 316/2017

According to the Examination process regulated by the Royal Decree 316/2017 that approves the Enforcement Regulations of the Law on Patents and in particular its article 34: if the SPTO considers that there are still reasons that block the patent granting, either totally or partially, it will be notified to the applicant, giving him the chance of making comments or corrections on the application; once received, the SPTO may repeat the objections notification and give new chances to the applicant to correct the application. These new chances may consist in one or several written processes or be concentrated on a single Oral Hearing when the applicant considers it proper.

Applicants do not resort to this procedure frequently, just the 2 or 3% of the European Patent Office (EPO) Examination processes end in an Oral Hearing, on the contrary the 70% of the Opposition processes do so. At national level, the first case of Oral Hearing in the context of a Patent Examination process has been registered recently. During it, the patentability of the invention under discussion has been analyzed by both parties, on one hand the Examination Commission members (two Patent Examiners and one Area Manager) and on the other hand the applicant, the I.P. Agent that represented him and a technician from the I.P. Agency. The Oral Hearing have proceeded normally and lasted about two hours, including several deliberation breaks, and finished with the Patent granting.