During the examination of a patent application, the Chinese Patent Office may issue various official notices, such as "Notice on Correction", "Notice on the First Office Action", "Notice on the Second Office Action", etc., and specify corresponding time limits for the applicant's response. The corresponding time limit for response to "Notice on Correction" is two months from the date of issuing the notice by the Patent Office; for "Notice on the First Office Action", four months from the date of issuing; for "Notice on the Second Office Action", two months from the date of issuing; etc. If the applicant can not meet the time limits, he may file a request with the Patent Office for the extension of the time limit for ONE time for up to two months.
When requesting for extension, a fee for extension shall be paid to the Chinese Patent Office.
The request shall be filed prior to the expiration of the time limit. If the request is filed after the expiration of the time limit, the Patent Office will deem the request not to have been filed and will issue a "Notice on Deeming the Application to Have Been Withdrawn".
The time limits for "requesting for substantive examination", "payment of fees", "claiming priority", "requesting for revocation of patent" and "requesting for re-examination" as provided in the Patent Law and its Implementing Regulations are statutory time limits and are not extensible.
