Registration and grant

Where the formal conditions are met and the invention has unity, the Registration Authority shall examine the substantive conditions of the application and its annexes and compliance with Article 18 of this Act within one year of the filing date, and shall notify the applicant of the result of this examination. The applicant may, within one month of the date of notification, submit their reasons regarding the examiner's report to the Registration Authority, or may within the same period make changes to the claim or claims within the framework of the examiner's statements or objections, provided that, as a result of these changes, the amended claim(s) do not go beyond the scope of the description of the original application. The Registration Authority shall notify the applicant, within one month, of its final opinion as to acceptance or non-acceptance of the application, formulated by the relevant experts taking into account the applicant's reasons and response and the reasons of interested parties (if submitted). Where the registration request is rejected, the applicant may, in accordance with Article 23 of this Act, object to that decision.

Note 1 — Where necessary, as determined by the Registration Authority, the one-year period referred to in this Article may be extended by a maximum of a further six months.

Note 2 — Where the Registration Authority does not provide the substantive examination response within the period referred to in this Article, the matter may, at the applicant's request, be heard by the Board referred to in Article 23 of this Act.

Note 3 — Where an extension of the deficiency-correction period is requested, the Registration Authority shall, after examining the circumstances, take an appropriate decision. An extension may be requested only once, for a maximum of thirty days.