1. novelty search: confirm whether it is novel. If it is not novel, don't waste money and it will be rejected.
2. Writing application documents: including the specification, the claims, the abstract of the specification, and sometimes the drawings of the specification and abstract.
3. Fill in the request: including the request for invention patent, the request for fee reduction, the request for substantive examination and the request for disclosure in advance.
4. Submit a patent application: print and fill in the application documents in duplicate, the invention patent request in duplicate, and the remaining requests in duplicate, and send them by registered mail to the China National Intellectual Property Administration Patent Office or the agency of the local patent office.
5. Pay the application fee and examination fee: After the patent is accepted, you will receive the formal acceptance notice and payment notice, and pay the corresponding amount of fees according to the time limit stipulated in the document.
6. Examination and reply to examination opinions: the invention patent is finally authorized or rejected after two stages: preliminary examination and substantive examination. For these two processes, there will be corresponding review opinions, which need to be answered within the prescribed time limit.
7. Payment and certification after authorization: At the time of authorization, the Patent Office will issue a notice of authorization and a notice of payment, and pay the corresponding fees within the prescribed time limit to obtain a patent certificate. After the patent announcement, the rights will take effect.
8. Patent maintenance: After authorization, the annual patent fee should be paid every year to maintain the validity of the patent. Failure to pay the corresponding fees shall be deemed as an automatic waiver of the patent right.
It usually takes 2-3 years to apply for an invention patent from application to authorization.
If you don't entrust an agency to apply for it yourself, it will take 2-3 years from application to authorization. However, if you can't respond well to the examination opinions of the Patent Office, the time will be extended and the patent may even be rejected.
The application fee for invention patent is 900 yuan, the publishing and printing fee is 50 yuan, the substantive examination fee is 2500 yuan, the registration fee is 250 yuan, and the stamp duty is 5 yuan. The annual fee is 900-8000 yuan/year (increasing year by year).
If the applicant is a natural person and meets the requirements of reduction and exemption, the above application fee will be reduced to 135 yuan, and the examination fee will be reduced to 375 yuan. The annual fee for the first three times after authorization will be paid at 15% of the total fee respectively. The rest of the expenses will not be delayed.
Please refer to www.ulea.cn for novelty retrieval, fees and procedures.