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How to apply for a patent in Finland
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Processing of applications
The National Board of Patents and Registration (NBPR) can grant a patent only after it has examined that the invention is really novel, involves an inventive step and is susceptible to industrial application. The examination takes place by comparing the invention to the written material available. The office is seldom in the position to examine public use.
The application procedure can be roughly divided into three phases:
Sometimes the application is rejected and the applicant may appeal from the decision to NBPR’s Board of Appeal. Every now and then an opposition process becomes a part of the processing, if somebody lodges an opposition against the granted patent.
The processing of the application is begun by ensuring that it contains all necessary documents and that the application fee has been paid. If that is not the case, the applicant is sent a letter giving a time limit for the reply. This letter, which is called office action, is a decision given during the application procedure, it is not yet the final decision. The answer to the letter must contain corrections to the deficiencies listed in it.
The Patents and Innovations Line of NBPR employs over 80 specialists in different fields of technology (M.Sc. (Eng.), M.Sc., D.Eng., Ph.D), whose task it is to examine whether the inventions disclosed in the applications are novel and contain an inventive step. This is done by comparing the invention to previous solutions found mainly in patent publications. Section 26 of the Patents Decree specifies the countries the patent publications of which have to be studied. More and more often material other than patent publications is also studied: textbooks, scientific journals in relevant fields, advertisements, brochures, non-patent databases, and so on.
NBPR’s examiners have at their disposal the European Patent Office’s electronic information retrieval systems and extensive databases, which contain patent publications from as far back as the 1920’s and even farther, and many non-patent databases. In NBPR’s collection in paper form there are patent publications from some countries dating back even to the 19th century.
If the examiner finds publications from which the invention in his or her mind does not differ essentially, the applicant is again sent a letter (office action). The applicant is usually given six months’ time to consider whether the patent claims could be modified (usually restricted) in a manner enabling the grant of a patent after all.
Two to three rounds of correspondence may be needed until the claims have a form permitting the grant of a patent.
When the examiner and the applicant have reached unanimity on the form in which the patent can be granted, the applicant is asked to pay a publication fee and a patent publication is printed from the text of the application.
When the printing process is ready, the patent can be granted. The grant takes place by publishing a mention of it in part B of the Patent Gazette. The Gazette is published twice a month.
From the day the patent is granted you can buy a publication on the patent at the NBPR. Sooner or later the publications will be included in the Espacenet database, both in its section of Finnish patents and in the one of the world-wide patents.
The patent takes effect when the grant of it is announced in the Patent Gazette. At the same time, from the day the Gazette is published, a nine-month time starts running during which anyone can lodge an opposition against the patent.
The aim of the opponent is to have the granted patent revoked, because he or she thinks that the patent should not have been granted. The reason may be that the invention is not novel after all. The opponent may know something that affects the matter but did not come out in the examination conducted at the NBPR. The reason may be for example public use before the filing date of the patent application, some written material which it was impossible for NBPR to find in the examination, or the like. Section 25 of the Patents Act lists the cases in which an opposition may be lodged.
If an opposition is lodged, the office re-examines the invention and sees if the patent is maintained or revoked. In some cases it is still possible for the holder to restrict the claims and the patent may be maintained in an amended form.
In some rare cases the examiner has to reject the application, because the invention either is not novel or does not differ essentially from those that are known previously. The decision to reject an application is always presented to a so-called senior examiner, which means that it is always the result of considerations by two examiners.
If an application is rejected, the applicant has the opportunity to appeal from the decision to NBPR’s Board of Appeal and see if the members of that Board disagree with the examiner. The appeal has to be lodged within 60 days from the date the applicant has been notified of the rejection. An unfavourable decision made by the Board of Appeal can be further appealed from to the Supreme Administrative Court within 60 days.
When a patent has been maintained despite an opposition, the opponent may appeal to NBPR’s Board of Appeal and from there further to the Supreme Administrative Court.