Legislative Implementation of Flexibilities - Estonia

Title:	§ 23 of the Patent Act (RT I 1994, 25, 406) of 16/03/1994 as last amended by Law RT I 2004, 20, 141 of 10/03/2004
Field of IP:	Patents
Type of flexibility:	Substantive examination
Summary table:

Provisions of Law

§ 23. Examination of patent applications

(1) During an examination, the Patent Office shall verify the compliance of an invention with the criteria of patentability provided by § 8 of this Act.

(2) The Patent Office may request from an applicant oral or written explanations and correction or amendment of the patent claims, description of the invention, drawings and the abstract of the subject matter of the invention or translations of foreign language documents submitted by the applicant. The Patent Office shall set a term for the provision of explanations or submission of corrections, amendments and translations.

(3) The Patent Office has the right to request from an applicant copy of decisions of patent offices of other countries regarding the applicant's analogous patent applications and to exchange information regarding the patent application with patent offices of other countries.

(4) If the Patent Office finds that the subject of the invention can be protected by a patent pursuant to the provisions of §§ 6 and 7 of this Act and the subject matter of the invention as expressed in the patent claims complies, when compared to the state of the art, with the criteria of patentability established in § 8 of this Act and that the form and contents of the patent application documents comply with the requirements relating to form and contents established on the basis of subsection 19 (4) of this Act, the Patent Office shall terminate the examination of the patent application, make a decision to issue the patent and shall notify the applicant thereof in writing.

(5) If the Patent Office finds that the subject of the invention cannot be protected by a patent pursuant to the provisions of §§ 6 and 7 of this Act or the subject matter of the invention as expressed in the patent claims does not comply, when compared to the state of the art, with the criteria of patentability established in § 8 of this Act or the applicant fails to separate an invention which violates the requirement of unity from the patent application by the due date set pursuant to subsection 9 (3) of this Act or that the form or contents of the patent application documents do not comply with the requirements relating to form and contents established on the basis of subsection 19 (2) of this Act or if the applicant fails to make the corrections or amendments or provide the explanations or submit the translations requested pursuant to subsection (2) or to submit the copies of decisions requested pursuant to subsection (3) of this section, the Patent Office shall terminate the examination of the patent application, make a decision to reject the patent application and shall notify the applicant thereof in writing.

(6) Any observations and opinions on a patent application submitted by a third person in the course of examination shall be communicated to the applicant who may comment on them. Third persons shall not be involved in processing.