1. Background of Promotion

- As the period for withdrawing a request for deferred examination is expanded to provide convenience to applicants, side effects such as a decrease in the examination quality of applications with withdrawn deferments and delays in the examination of other unrelated applications inevitably occur; thus, a means to prevent this is necessary. 

- Even when filing a PCT international application based on a domestic application, it is necessary to examine the domestic application after the PCT international search report is prepared, in order to guarantee procedural opportunities for the applicant to receive an international search independent of the examination results of the domestic application and choose a strategy for responding to the examination, while simultaneously improving the examination quality of the domestic application. 

- Accordingly, the subject of regulation (withholding of examination) is a means to provide substantial benefits to applicants, who are the regulated group, by preventing side effects arising from system improvements meant to enhance applicant convenience, providing high-quality examination services, and creating an examination environment for establishing effective response strategies.

2. Regulatory Content

- It prescribes cases where a request for deferred examination is withdrawn pursuant to Article 40-3, Paragraph 2 of the 「Enforcement Rule of the Patent Act」 and Article 10-3, Paragraph 2 of the 「Enforcement Rule of the Utility Model Act」 as grounds for which examination can be withheld (Article 7, Paragraph 1, Subparagraph 12 of the Regulation).

- It prescribes cases where the international search report of a PCT international application (limited to cases where the international searching authority is the Republic of Korea) related to the relevant application has not been prepared as grounds for which examination can be withheld (Article 7, Paragraph 1, Subparagraph 13 of the Regulation).