New Practice for Canadian Patent Applications—Request for Continued Examination (RCE)

New Practice for Canadian Patent Applications—Examination Report and Request for Continued Examination

For Canadian patent applications before October 3, 2022, there is no limit on the number of office action notices issued. In addition, there is no requirement to continue examination after receiving a certain number of examination reports. At the same time, for Canadian patent applications before October 3, 2022, the prerequisite for filing a re-litigation is to file a request to revoke the authorization.

The newly revised Canadian Patent Law stipulates that the practice of continuing examination (RCE) will be introduced after October 3, 2022, which limits the number of examination opinions that can be issued at different stages before the examination is stopped. If you want to continue the examination, you must Pay the RCE review fee.

Specifically, after submitting a request for substantive examination, the applicant may receive up to three examination action notices. If the patent application still needs to be examined after receiving three examination opinions, the applicant must submit an RCE request. The fees for an RCE request are comparable to those for substantive examination, ranging from $816 for large entities to $408 for small entities.

After the applicant submits an RCE request and pays the corresponding fee, the applicant can receive up to 2 more review opinions. The applicant can submit a 2nd RCE again and receive up to 2 more reviews in the 2nd RCE review. Opinion.

If the examiner issues a final action (Final Action), the review of the patent application will be terminated. If you want to keep the patent application valid, you can only appeal to the Patent Appeal Board.

The review will also stop upon receipt of a letter of authorization, or a conditional letter of authorization. If the applicant requests re-examination at this time, the applicant must pay the RCE request fee.

The new RCE regulations do not apply to patent applications that submit a request for examination and pay examination fees before October 3, 2022. However, if an authorization notice or a conditional authorization notice has been received and the patent applicant files for re-examination or litigation, the RCE request fee must be paid in this case. After submitting an RCE request to re-start examination, the procedure for continued examination applies, that is, the applicant can receive up to two examination opinions.