Recently, according to reports, the United States Patent and Trademark Office issued 320,003 invention patents (Utility Patents) in 2017, an increase of 5.2% from the previous year. China is on the rise, and the number of U.S. patent authorizations has increased by 28% compared with last year. It can be seen that the popularity of applying for U.S. patents is still growing rapidly. So how to apply for a U.S. patent? What are the U.S. patent application procedures? We introduce it to you in the article below. How to apply for a US patent? What are the U.S. patent application procedures? 1. Submit an application in the process of applying for a U.S. patent: When submitting an application, you need to pay the application fee, search fee, examination fee and application documents at the same time, otherwise late payment fees will be incurred; after the application is submitted, the USPTO will issue an official receipt, and you can get it immediately See the application number and other main information of the case; in addition, the United States has special requirements for claims. If there are multiple citations, additional official fees will be incurred: $780 for large entities, $390 for small entities, and $195 for micro entities. If there are multiple citations, will not be accepted by the USPTO, so when entering the US stage, we will make preliminary amendments in accordance with the requirements of US patent law to modify the claims to avoid additional costs or formal examination rejection; if it is mentioned in the specification, PCT search report or examination opinion Relevant Prior Arts must be made into an IDS and submitted to the USPTO. If an IDS is not submitted, when the validity of the patent is involved in the future, if it is determined to be intentional deception, the authorized patent may also be invalid; 2. Formal review of the U.S. patent application process: After passing the formal review, the USPTO will issue a formal official Notice of acceptance; 3. Disclosure of the U.S. patent application process: after passing the review, it will be automatically published 18 months from the application date or priority date, or it will be disclosed within 18 months from the application date according to the applicant's request; 4. Apply for a U.S. patent Practical review process: It usually takes 12 to 18 months for the review opinion to be issued. If rejected, the applicant must respond within 3 months from the date of receipt of the notification. The applicant can submit a request for a deadline extension, which can be extended for up to 3 months; US applications generally receive 1-2 review opinions. If they cannot overcome the review opinions and receive a final rejection, they can choose to continue to respond (the probability of being adopted is low) or submit Reply and RCE (somewhat similar to China review, but there is no limit to the number of RCEs. After the official fee is paid, the USPTO will conduct a re-examination, and the process is the same as a new case), or request an appeal. 5. During the review process of applying for a U.S. patent, if some of the claims can be authorized, you can also seek authorization first. Unauthorized rights can be submitted to a Continuation Application (CA) to continue arguing with the examiner. If the applicant needs to add new substantive content during the application process, he or she can submit a Continuation-in-part (CIP). The newly added content will not enjoy the priority of the parent case. CA and CIP need to be submitted in the parent case. The authorization fee has been submitted before, and the official fee is the same as for the new case. After authorization, there will be a separate patent certificate (it can be regarded as an independent patent in China and receive corresponding government subsidies). 6. Patent registration procedures in the U.S. patent application process: If no reason for rejection is found after review, an authorization notice will be issued. The applicant should complete the patent registration procedures and pay the registration fee within three months from the date of receipt of the notice. How to apply for a US patent? What are the U.S. patent application procedures? We have answered this question for you here. If you have more questions about patent application, you can continue to pay attention to Bajie Intellectual Property, or contact us by phone.