It is widely believed in the patent field that European patent searches are better than other searches. For example, many U.S. patent attorneys considered patent searches by the European patent office are better than that by the U.S. patent office.
Even if a PCT application has been searched by the China State Intellectual Property Office, when the PCT application enters the national phase, the application may be searched again by the national patent office, with or without the request of the applicant. |