When you search a patent, for some reasons, you may want to know more detailed documents of the patent, and many documents are usually not directly accessible. At this time, you can use the consultation and photocopying of patent application documents service of the Patent Office, which means that the Patent Office disclose the patent application documents preserved to the petitioner through browsing electronic documents or copying paper documents at the request of the petitioner. Consultation refers to the electronic browse of documents, while photocopying means obtaining a paper copy of documents. 

Does anyone have the right to consult and photocopy any patent documents? The answer is no. Different petitioners have different permissions at different stages.

(1) For an invention patent application before publication and a utility model or design patent application before announcement, the applicant or attorney may consult or photocopy the following documents: 

l the application documents;

l the formality documents directly relating to the application;

l notifications and decisions sent to the applicant in the preliminary examination procedure, the text of the observations submitted by the applicant in response to the notifications, and notifications, search reports and decisions sent to the applicant in the substantive examination procedure.

(2) For a published invention patent application, but its grant of patent right has not been announced, the following documents until the publication date which may be consulted and copied by everyone:

l the application documents;

l formality documents directly relating to the application;

l the certified priority documents;

l publication documents;

l notifications, search reports and decisions sent to the applicant in the preliminary examination procedure and the text of the observations submitted by the applicant in response to the notifications.

(3) For a granted and announced patent, the following documents may be consulted and copied by everyone:

l the application documents;

l the formality documents directly relating to the application;

l pamphlet of invention patent application;

l pamphlet of invention patent, pamphlet of utility model patent or pamphlet of design patent;

l Patent Register;

l patent evaluation report;

l the various notifications and decisions issued by the Patent Office or the Patent Reexamination and Invalidation Department to the applicant or parties concerned, and the text of the observations submitted by the applicant or the parties concerned in response to the notifications in the examination proceedings which have been closed (including procedures of preliminary examination, substantive examination, reexamination and invalidation, etc.).

(4) For the documents of patent applications which are still in reexamination or invalidation procedure and have not been closed, where consultation and photocopying of the documents are necessary due to special needs, the documents before starting the current procedure may be consulted and copied upon the approval of the competent authorities according to the relevant provisions of above-mentioned items (1) and (2).

To sum up, the basic principle of patent application document consultation and photocopying is the combination of confidentiality and disclosure.

The principle of confidentiality is reflected in the following aspects. The patent application documents that have not been published for an invention patent application or have not been announced of a utility model or design patent application, the documents of reexamination or invalidation cases that have not been closed the Patent Office and the Patent Reexamination and Invalidation Department are liable to keep them in confidential. Where the conclusion of the reexamination or invalidation case is that the request is deemed not to have been filed, not accepted, actively withdrawn, or deemed to have been withdrawn, for the documents in the procedure of reexamination or invalidation, and other documents that are not suitable for disclosure, the Patent Office and the Patent Reexamination and Invalidation Department shall bear the responsibility to keep them in confidential. That is, the petitioner for consultation or photocopying is limited only to the patent applicant and attorney.

In principle, the patent application documents that have been published for an invention patent application or have been announced of a utility model or design patent application, anyone may request to consult and copy. However, the above provisions do not apply if consultation or photocopying may cause damage to the legitimate interest of the party concerned, or involve privacy or trade secrets, etc.