Patent practice - Differences between Patent Search Reports and Patent Right Assessment Reports--Publications--Jiaquan IP & Law

▍ Patent practice - Differences between Patent Search Reports and Patent Right Assessment Reports

Ceici S. SHI | Dec 28, 2021

The Patent Search Report (hereinafter referred to as "Search Report") is a search report that may be requested by anybody to suit their own specialized needs, including: novelty searches, existing technology/existing design searches, special searches, granted patent searches, legal status searches, searches of patent families, tracking searches, infringement analysis, patent invalidity searches, etc.

Increasing numbers of enterprises and organizations are taking advantage of Search Reports to build early warning analysis platforms, dedicated to checking or monitoring the IP status of their competitors. As a result, these entities can more effectively avoid unintentional patent infringement during operation, management, and R&D.

The Patent Right Assessment Report (hereinafter referred to as "Assessment Report") refers to reports issued by the CNIPA, which a patentee or interested party can request when facing an infringement dispute. It establishes an important basis for judging the stability of a patent. However, it may only be requested after being granted a utility model patent or design patent.

The differences between Search Reports and Assessment Reports are summarized as follows:

Differences	Patent Search Report	Patent Right Assessment Report
Patent Type	All types of patents	Only for Chinese utility model patents or Chinese design patents
Who Can Request	Anyone	Only the patentee or an interested party (An interested party refers to a party that brings a relevant lawsuit to court, or requests administrative authority for handling patent infringement disputes; such a party could include the licensee of a patentee-authorized license contract)
Who Can View	Only the requestor	The report is open to the public and available on the official CNIPA website (Because the report is publicly available, the requestor should take appropriate precautions while applying for the report)
Issued By	CNIPA Search Center	CNIPA
Purpose	To predict the chance of being granted a patent prior to filing the patent application	E-commerce platform complaints
	Application for prior examination	Provides reference basis for court, industry, commerce administrative departments, and public security department
	Patent license and transaction	Patent license and transaction
	Search for evidence of patent invalidity	Important reference for the stability of patent rights
	Evaluation of patent stability
Time Required	About 10 working days Expedited: 5 working days (For urgent needs, please contact the search center in advance to confirm if immediate processing is possible)	About 2 months (No Expedition)
Request times	Unlimited	Only one time
Cost	Not fixed, case by case	Fixed fee: RMB 2,400
Required Information or Documents	Description of search purpose, technical disclosure, or patent documents. Other requirements depend on the specific search being conducted.	Request Form for Patent Right Assessment Report; Power of Attorney

From this table, it is evident that the Patent Right Assessment Report is different from Patent Search Report. However, relevant Patent Searches are bound to be conducted for the issuance of an Assessment Report anyway. In general, the application scenarios of the Patent Search Report are more extensive than that of Patent Right Assessment Reports.

The Patent Right Assessment Report is not an administrative decision and can only be used as a "form of evidence" for reference. The Patent Right Assessment Report may not be used to deny the granting of a patent.