According to the provisions of China's patent law, an invention patent generally goes through the following procedures from application to authorization:
1. The applicant provides technical disclosure and entrusts a patent agency to write application documents. The agent shall, according to the requirements of the patent law and the applicant's invention content, write the application documents with the largest protection scope as far as possible. During the communication and confirmation between the agent and the applicant, it usually takes about 10 to 20 days;
2. After writing the application documents, submit the application documents, obtain the notification of acceptance from the Patent Office, determine the application date, and submit an early public statement and request substantive examination on the day of submission of the documents, which can speed up the examination process.
3. The Patent Office will formally review the patent application documents for about 2-4 months, and enter the public preparation stage after the first trial is passed.
4. It takes about 6-8 months for the Patent Office to publish the invention application documents; The invention entered the substantive examination stage about 10 month;
5. The time for the Patent Office to conduct substantive examination of the invention patent documents is about one and a half to two years, during which the examiner and the applicant communicate on the substantive content of the invention, namely novelty, creativity and practicality (entrusting the agency to communicate with the agent of the agency to determine the appropriate scope of protection of the invention), and the communication may go back and forth several times until it is revised to the satisfaction of the examiner;
6. Letter of authorization issued by the Patent Office;
7. The applicant shall go through the formalities for obtaining the patent certificate;
8. It takes about 2-3 months to get the patent certificate.
The whole process lasts about two and a half to four years, and the specific time depends on the speed of the examiner's review and the informative degree of the applicant's disclosure.