To apply for a patent, you must go to the Patent Office of the State Intellectual Property Office, not the Industrial and Commercial Bureau, which is responsible for trademark registration.

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Search before patent application

Before applying for a patent, it is best to conduct a search to determine which invention content belongs to the "prior art" ". If the content to be applied for has been recorded in the searched patent documents or other public publications, it may affect the prospect of authorization of the application. In addition, even if there is no documentation, if others can determine that it is common knowledge in the field, it will lead to the rejection of the patent application.

Benefits of Patent Search

Carefully understanding what content belongs to the prior art will help the applicant make a judgment on whether to apply for a patent and write patent application documents. The "Background Art" part of the description should include the closest prior art. For utility model patents, it is usually necessary to provide drawings of the background art. Therefore, doing so can enable the examiner and the public to clearly understand the substantive improvements of the invention. and advantages.

Patent application documents

Inventions and utility models: request, description and abstract, and claims; inventions may have drawings if necessary, and utility models must have drawings; involving When applying for an invention of new biological materials, a deposit certificate and a survival certificate should be submitted; if a nucleic acid or amino acid sequence is involved, the machine-readable text of the sequence listing should be submitted.

Appearance design: request letter, pictures or photos; state the products using the design and its category; if requesting color protection, submit color pictures or photos; if necessary, state the rights to the design Brief description; the brief description should indicate the key points of the design, omitted views, colors to be protected, etc.

Patent review

After the patent application is submitted to the State Intellectual Property Office, you will receive an acceptance notice and will be reviewed after paying the full fee. Patent examination is divided into preliminary examination and substantive examination, with the latter only focusing on invention patents.

The patent review process generally lasts 1-3 years, depending on the type of patent and the content of the invention. Utility model and design patents are authorized after preliminary examination, and invention patents that pass the preliminary examination will be issued a preliminary examination qualification notice, waiting to enter substantive examination.

When a patent application is in the review stage, the applicant does not yet have the right to prevent others from infringing upon its rights. However, after the invention patent is published (usually on the 18th month from the date of patent application), the applicant can ask the infringer to stop the infringement and pay appropriate royalties, and the infringer can also refuse. After the patent is granted, the applicant can pursue infringement liability against the infringer through judicial procedures and demand compensation.

Substantive examination of invention patents

The substantive examination of inventions is conducted in the substantive examination department of the Patent Office. The examiner evaluates the patent application by searching domestic and foreign patent documents and public publications. "Novelty", "creativeness" and "practicability", and at the same time, it is also necessary to review whether the drafting of the patent document meets the requirements, such as whether it meets the requirements of "unity", whether "the disclosure is sufficient", whether the "modification exceeds the scope", etc.

Substantial examination must be conducted after the invention is announced. Publication stipulated by law is conducted 18 months from the filing date. Some applicants are willing to disclose the content of their inventions in advance, so there will be patent applications. It is made public between 6 and 10 months old. Usually, the examiner at the substantive examination stage will issue at least one examination opinion notice to the applicant or his agent. The examination opinions can reflect the possibility of authorization of the invention and the existing defects. Review comments generally include format errors, novelty issues, inventiveness issues, sufficient disclosure, singleness issues, etc.

The time for patent substantive examination is uncertain, usually 6-18 months, depending on the content of the invention, the examiner’s understanding of the invention, the examiner’s work arrangements, and the relationship between the examiner and the applicant or his agent. The time it takes for files to go back and forth between people. The standard fee for substantive examination of invention patents is 2,500 yuan/piece.