The general retrieval method can refer to the following steps:
1. Enter the patent search page through the website of the US Patent and Trademark Office (official website-Patents-Search Patents).
2. Select the retrieval database, taking the full-text database as an example: USPTO patent full-text and image database (PATFT).
3. Enter a Quick Search, which can be queried by the information in fields such as patent number, application number and applicant.
4. Or enter Advanced Search to edit the search formula for more complicated query.
American patents include inventions, designs and new plant varieties.
American invention patent: 20 years from the date of filing, and the maintenance fee is paid in the third and a half years, seven and a half years and eleven and a half years from the date of registration. The scope of protection relates to the patent of the composition or the method of using the composition, and its validity can be extended to 5 years at the longest.
American design patent: fourteen years from the date of registration. You can still file a patent application within half a year after publication (this is a big difference between American patent novelty judgment and China patent).
Patent of new plant varieties: 20 years from the date of application, and the maintenance fee shall be paid in the third, seventh and eleventh years from the date of registration.
There are three ways to apply for a patent in America: 1. Apply for a patent directly in the United States (confidential examination needs to be conducted in China Patent Office in advance, and you can apply for a patent directly in the United States after the confidential examination is passed); 2. Apply for a patent in the United States through the Paris Convention (the priority is only 12 months); 3. Apply for a patent in the United States through the PCT Patent Cooperation Treaty (priority can reach 30 months).