How to apply for a patent

Patent application is a necessary procedure for obtaining patent rights. To obtain a patent right, the applicant must submit an application to the national patent office, which shall approve and issue a certificate. How should I apply for a patent? The editor of Legal Savior Network has compiled the following content to answer your questions. I hope it will be helpful to you.

How to apply for a patent

To obtain patent rights, the applicant must apply to the national patent office. The national patent authority approves and issues a certificate. When applying for a patent to the national patent office, the applicant should also submit a series of application documents, such as request, description, abstract, claims, etc. In terms of Patent application, the provisions of patent laws in various countries around the world are basically the same.

Patent application: An invention must be filed with A person submits a patent application to a government department (in China, currently the State Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China), and can obtain the patent right only after it is reviewed and approved by the State Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China in accordance with legal procedures. In China, inventions and creations currently include three types: inventions, utility models and designs.

In the application stage, they are called invention patents respectively. Application, utility model patent application and design patent application. After being authorized, they are called invention patents, utility model patents and design patents respectively. At this time, the applicant is the patentee of the corresponding patent.

Detailed process explanation

1. Filling in and writing patent application documents

There are specific requirements for filling in and writing patent application documents. Applicants can fill in or write them by themselves, or they can entrust a patent agency. Handle it on your behalf. Although entrusting a patent agent is not mandatory, considering the importance of carefully drafting patent application documents and the legal rigor of the approval process, it is worth advocating for inexperienced applicants to entrust a patent agent.

2. Acceptance of patent applications

Patent application received by the Patent Office acceptance office or various patent office agencies Afterwards, for applications that meet the acceptance conditions, the application date will be determined, an application number will be given, and an acceptance notice will be issued.

3. How to pay the application fee

Application fees and other fees can be paid directly to the Patent Office Charge Office or Patent Office Agency, or remitted through a bank or post office. Currently, banks use electronic transfer and post offices use electronic remittance. Method. When the payer pays the patent fee through the post office or bank, he should write the correct application number or patent number on the money order, and use the abbreviation of the name of the fee to be paid. The remitter should ask the bank or post office staff to write in the remittance postscript If you enter the above payment information in the post office and remit money through the post office, you should also ask the post office staff to enter the complete mailing address, including postal code. This information will play an important role in subsequent procedures. Fees must not be sent to the Patent Office acceptance office.

4. Application fee payment time

If the patent application documents are submitted in person, the application fee can be paid after receiving the acceptance notice and the application fee payment notice. If the application is submitted by mail, the application fee should be paid after receiving the acceptance notice and the application fee payment notice, because the corresponding application number needs to be stated when paying the application fee, but the date for payment of the application fee must not be later than the date of application. From the date.

5. Patent approval process

According to the Patent Law, the approval process for invention patent applications includes acceptance, preliminary examination, There are five stages: publication, actual review and authorization. Utility model or design patent applications are not subject to publication and substantive examination during approval, but only three stages: acceptance, preliminary examination and authorization.

6. Active modification and correction of patent application documents

Proactive modification and correction of patent application documents is also a procedure that applicants can choose according to their needs. Applications for utility model and design patents are only allowed to make active amendments within two months from the filing date; applications for invention patents are only allowed when a request for substantive examination is made and after receiving a notice from the Patent Office that the invention patent application has entered the substantive examination stage. The patent application documents will be actively revised within 12 days.

7. Reply to various notices from the Patent Office

(1) Comply with the response deadline. The consequences of late response and non-response are the same. Respond to the issues pointed out in the examination opinion notice one by one. The reply can express agreement with the examiner's opinion, and according to the examination opinion Make corrections or modify the application; if you disagree with the examiner's opinion, you should state your opinion and reasons.

(2) Defects in format or procedures can generally be eliminated through corrections; obvious substantive defects are generally difficult to eliminate through corrections or modifications. In most cases, only whether they exist or can be eliminated Defend and state opinions for obvious substantive defects.

(3) Corrections or modifications to an invention or utility model patent application shall not exceed the scope recorded in the original description and claims, and modifications to a design patent application shall not exceed the scope represented by the original pictures or photos. Modification documents shall be in accordance with regulations Format submission replacement page.

(4) The reply should Submit documents in accordance with the prescribed format. For example, submit a supplement or a statement of opinion. Generally, a supplement is used to correct formal issues or procedural issues, and a statement of opinion is used to modify the substantive content of the application. If the applicant disagrees with the examiner's opinion, when making a defense Use opinion statement.

The above is the editor’s summary If you still have relevant legal advice or don’t understand other matters, you can call the online lawyer on the Legal Savior Network for answers. The lawyer’s professional knowledge can help you.