(1) Submission of patent application documents
Patent request. The patent request shall record the name of the invention-creation, the information of the inventor and the applicant, the special matters related to the invention-creation, the list of documents submitted and the signature or seal of the applicant, etc. Where the inventor requests not to publish his name, he shall not request to publish his name again in the future.
Claim. The patent claim determines the scope of protection required by the patent application, including at least one independent claim, that is, all the necessary technical features to realize the invention. Dependent claims include additional features or further restrictions on necessary technical features, and multiple claims shall be numbered in Arabic numeral order. In order to make the scope of protection clear, vague words or diagrams are not allowed in the claims, and chemical formulas, mathematical formulas and even tables can be included when necessary.
Description. The description includes the invention name, text, amino acid or nucleotide sequence list. The text is divided into five parts: technical field, background technology, invention content, attached drawings and specific implementation methods. Illustrations are not allowed in the text part of the manual, but there can be chemical formulas, mathematical formulas or tables. Where the amino acid or nucleotide sequence is involved, the page number of the sequence table shall be written separately and submitted to the CD or floppy disk where the sequence table is recorded.
Description summary. The abstract of the specification is a summary of the specification, including the invention name, technical field, technical problems to be solved, key points of technical scheme and main uses.
Attached drawings of the instruction manual. The instructions and drawings required in the guide are drawn by drawing tools including computers, and colored and altered black lines are not allowed. The number of the drawing is written directly below the drawing, and the rest of the text notes are written in the drawing of the main body of the specification. Generally, photographs are not allowed as attached drawings. In special cases, photographs can be used, such as showing metallographic structure, tissue cells or electrophoresis patterns.
Abstract attached drawings. The attached drawings in the specification are the drawings that can best explain the main technical features of the technical scheme, that is, the abstract drawings.
Design pictures or photographs. Design pictures or photographs refer to the front view of the product. For example, a three-dimensional product has six orthogonal views, including front view, back view, left view, right view, top view and bottom view, while a planar product has two orthogonal views. The applicant shall submit at least the front view of the surface involved in the main points of product design, and if necessary, the developed drawing, sectional drawing, sectional drawing, enlarged drawing, change state drawing and reference drawing of the product (used to indicate the use, use method or use place of the product with design). The reason for omitting the view should be written in the brief description.
A brief description of the design. The design specification shall specify the name, purpose and design points of the designed product, and specify the pictures or photographs that can best show the design points. In addition, it also includes the case of requesting color protection or omitting the view, the case of specifying the basic design in similar designs, the case of infinite boundaries such as two consecutive sides or four consecutive sides of flat products, the case of omitting the length of slender articles, and the case of product names of each suite in a complete product made of transparent materials or materials with special visual effects.
Costs have slowed down. According to China National Intellectual Property Administration's Announcement on Adjusting the Handling Mode of Patent Fee Reduction (No.229), before submitting a patent application, the patent applicant logs into the patent affairs service system, submits a request for fee reduction for the record, and submits corresponding certification materials to the designated institution for review according to the system prompt; After the examination and approval, the fee waiver can be handled by indicating the requested fee waiver and the completed fee waiver for the record in the patent request. The annual personal income is less than 42,000 yuan, and the taxable income of the unit in the previous year is less than 300,000 yuan, all of which meet the conditions of cost reduction.
(2) Application method
New application documents can be submitted in two ways: paper application and electronic application.
Paper form means that the applicant downloads the patent application documents from ipa.gov.cn Website-Form Download-General Category and prints them in simplified Chinese. The reception hall of China National Intellectual Property Administration Patent Office or its agency can receive new application documents, which can be submitted in person or mailed by registered mail or EMS.
Electronic application refers to registering as an electronic application user in China Patent Electronic Application Network, submitting an electronic patent application document online or downloading an offline client, and receiving a notice from the Patent Office.
(3) Accept and take the initiative to correct.
After submitting the patent application documents, you will first receive the Notice of Patent Application Acceptance and the Notice of Fee Reduction and Approval, and pay the relevant fees within 15 days after receiving the notice or within 2 months from the application date.
A patent for utility model or design may be corrected voluntarily within 2 months from the date of application, when an invention patent is submitted for substantive examination or within 3 months after receiving the notice of entering the substantive examination stage. Active modification shall comply with the provisions of Article 33 of the Patent Law: the applicant shall not modify the application documents for patents for inventions and utility models beyond the scope recorded in the original specification and claims, or modify the application documents for patents for designs beyond the scope shown in the original pictures or photographs. For example, in the original specification and the claims, the modification of the claims and the modified technical scheme should be clearly recorded. If the information in the original text is added, changed and/or deleted in the modification of the specification and its abstract, so that the information seen by the technicians in the field is different from the information recorded in the original application, and cannot be directly and clearly determined from the information recorded in the original application, such modification is not allowed.
(4) Preliminary examination
After the patent application is accepted, it will enter the preliminary examination stage. The main task of this stage is to examine whether the relevant documents, deadlines and fees submitted by the applicant comply with the provisions of the Patent Law and its detailed rules for implementation. In the preliminary examination, there are defects in the patent application that can be overcome by making corrections. On the basis of comprehensive review, the examiner issues a notice of correction or a notice of review opinions, and the applicant shall submit a reply document within the prescribed time limit.
(5) Publication and substantive examination of invention patents
An application for a patent for invention shall be published within 18 months from the date of filing and about 3 months after passing the preliminary examination. The applicant may, according to his own wishes, start the substantive examination procedure within 3 years from the date of application; In the process of substantive examination, the examiner issues a notice of examination opinions according to the retrieval, and the applicant shall modify the patent application documents or state opinions according to the defects pointed out in the notice within a specified time limit.
(6) Patent authorization and maintenance
After the patent for utility model and design has passed the preliminary examination and the patent for invention has passed the substantive examination, a notice of granting patent right and a notice of going through the registration formalities will be issued. The applicant will go through the registration formalities within 2 months after receiving the notice, and the Patent Office will issue a patent certificate and announce it at the same time. Failure to go through the registration formalities shall be regarded as giving up the patent right. After the patent is granted, it needs to pay an annual fee to maintain it. If the annual fee for the next year is paid in advance before the annual application date, if it cannot be paid on time, the examination organ will issue a notice of payment.
(seven) the request for review and the request for invalidation
If the applicant disagrees with the decision of rejection, he may, within 3 months after receiving the notice of rejection, make a request for reexamination to the Reexamination Committee, submit the request for reexamination and relevant evidence, and pay the reexamination fee; If the applicant refuses to accept the review decision, he may bring a lawsuit to the people's court within 3 months from the date of receiving the review decision. If no prosecution is initiated at the expiration of the period or the people's court makes an effective judgment to uphold the reconsideration decision, the reconsideration procedure shall be terminated.
After the patent is authorized, the party concerned may file a request for invalidation of the patent, submit a request for invalidation and relevant evidence to prove the qualification of the party concerned (a copy of the ID card signed by the individual, a copy of the business license stamped with the official seal of the unit or a copy of the organization code certificate), and pay the request fee for invalidation; If there is any objection to the examination decision of the request for invalidation, the applicant may bring a lawsuit to the people's court within 3 months from the date of receiving the examination decision. If no prosecution is initiated at the expiration of the period or the people's court makes an effective judgment to maintain the review decision, the Patent Office shall register and announce it.
The above is the general process of patent application, which is suitable for the applicant's reference when applying for the first time.