Although it is not mandatory to entrust a patent agency, considering the importance of carefully writing patent application documents and the legal rigor of examination and approval procedures, it is worth promoting for applicants with little experience.
2. Acceptance of Patent Application After receiving the patent application, the Patent Office's acceptance office or the agencies of the patent offices shall determine the application date, give the application number and issue a notice of acceptance for the application that meets the acceptance conditions.
3. How to pay the application fee and other fees can be paid directly to the toll office or agency of the patent office, or remitted by bank or post office.
At present, banks use electronic transfer and post offices use electronic remittance.
When paying the patent fee through the post office or bank, the payer shall indicate the correct application number or patent number on the money order, and shall abbreviate the name of the payer.
The remitter should ask the bank or post office staff to enter the above payment information in the remittance postscript column. If you remit money through the post office, you should also ask the post office staff to enter the complete mailing address, including the postal code, which will play an important role in future procedures.
Fees shall not be sent to the Patent Office.
[5]4. When the application fee is paid, if the patent application documents are submitted in person, the application fee can be paid after obtaining the acceptance notice and the application fee payment notice.
If an application is submitted by mail, the application fee shall be paid after receiving the notification of acceptance and the notification of payment of the application fee, because the application fee needs to be paid with the corresponding application number, but the date of payment of the application fee shall not exceed two months from the date of application at the latest.
5. Patent Approval Procedure According to the provisions of the Patent Law, the approval procedure of an application for a patent for invention includes five stages: acceptance, preliminary examination, publication, actual examination and authorization.
When examining and approving an application for a patent for utility model or design, there are only three stages: acceptance, preliminary examination and authorization.
6. The active modification and correction of patent application documents is also a procedure that the applicant can choose according to his needs.
Applications for patents for utility models and designs are only allowed to be modified voluntarily within two months from the date of application; An application for a patent for invention is only allowed to actively modify the patent application documents within three months from the date of filing a request for substantive examination and receiving a notice from the Patent Office that the application for a patent for invention has entered the substantive examination stage.
7. Reply to various notices from the Patent Office (1). Observe the time limit for reply, and the consequences of late reply are the same as those of no reply.
Answer the questions pointed out in the Notice of Review Opinions one by one.
The reply can agree with the examiner's opinion, and make corrections or amendments to the application according to the examination opinions; If you disagree with the examiner, you should state your own views and reasons.
(2) Defects in format or procedure can generally be eliminated by correction; Obvious substantive defects are generally difficult to eliminate through revision or modification. In most cases, we can only defend and state our opinions on whether there are or are obvious substantive defects.
(3) The modification of an application for a patent for invention or utility model shall not exceed the scope recorded in the original specification and claims, and the modification of an application for a patent for design shall not exceed the scope shown in the original picture or photograph.
When submitting the revised document, a replacement page shall be attached in the prescribed format.
(4) The defence shall be filed in the prescribed form.
Such as submitting corrections or comments.
Under normal circumstances, the formal or procedural problems are corrected by using the correction book, and the substantive contents of the application are modified by using the opinion statement. If the applicant disagrees with the examiner's opinion, use a statement of opinion when replying.
8. An application for a patent shall be deemed to have been withdrawn. If the formalities for restoration have not been completed at the expiration of the period, the application shall be deemed to have been withdrawn, and the Patent Office shall issue a notice of deemed withdrawal.
If the applicant has justified reasons, he may, within two months from the date of receiving the notice of deemed withdrawal, request the Patent Office to restore his rights and explain the reasons.
Anyone who requests the restoration of rights shall submit the Request for Restoration of Rights, explain the justified reasons for the extension, pay the restoration fee, and complete all the unfinished procedures that should be handled.
The procedures for handling formalities and paying fees should generally be completed within the above two months.
9. If the application for a patent for utility model and design has been preliminarily examined, and the application for a patent for invention has been substantially examined, and no reason for rejection has been found, the Patent Office will issue a notice of authorization and a notice of registration.
After receiving the authorization notice and registration notice, the applicant shall go through the registration formalities and pay the prescribed fees within two months according to the requirements of the notice.
If the registration formalities are overdue and the prescribed fees are paid, the Patent Office will grant the patent right, issue a patent certificate, record it in the patent register and announce it in the patent gazette, and the patent right will take effect as of the date of announcement.
Failure to go through the registration formalities within the prescribed time limit shall be regarded as giving up the right to obtain the patent right.
10. Fees for registration. When going through the registration formalities, you don't need to submit any documents. Applicants only need to pay the patent registration fee (including announcement printing fee) and the annual fee and stamp duty for the year of authorization as required. When an application for a patent for invention is authorized, if the interval between filing dates exceeds two years, an application maintenance fee shall also be paid.
The authorized year shall pay the corresponding fees according to the year specified in the registration notice.
1 1. After the patent application for the maintenance of the patent right is granted, the patentee shall pay the annual fee for the next year one month before the expiration of each year.
If the annual fee is not paid or not paid in full, the Patent Office will issue a notice of payment, informing the patentee to pay it within six months from the date when the annual fee should be paid, and at the same time pay the late fee.
The amount of overdue fine is calculated by adding 5% of the full annual fee of the current year for each month that exceeds the prescribed payment time; If the amount paid is not paid or insufficient, the patent right shall be terminated from the date when the annual fee payable expires.
12. Termination of the patent right is divided into: (1) Expiration of the term: the invention patent right is 20 years from the date of application, and the utility model or design patent right is terminated according to law 10 year from the date of application; (2) Termination of non-payment: If the applicant fails to pay or fails to pay the annual fee and late payment fee after the Patent Office issues a payment notice informing the applicant to pay the annual fee and late payment fee, the patent right shall be terminated from the expiration date of the previous year.
13. From the date of authorization, if any unit or individual thinks that the grant of the patent right is not in conformity with the relevant provisions of the Patent Law, it may request that the patent right be declared invalid.
Where a patent right is requested to be declared invalid or partially invalid, the applicant shall pay the required fees and submit a request for invalidation in duplicate, indicating the name and patent number of the patent requested to be declared invalid, the facts and reasons on which it is based, and attach the necessary evidence.
If a party refuses to accept the decision on the request for invalidation of a patent, he may bring a suit in a people's court within three months from the date of receiving the notice.
The patent office shall register and announce the decision after it becomes legally effective.
An invalid patent right shall be regarded as nonexistent from the beginning.
Application Process According to the provisions of the Patent Law, the examination and approval procedure of an application for a patent for invention is divided into five stages: acceptance, preliminary examination, publication, substantive examination and authorization. (1) In the acceptance stage, the Patent Office will review the patent application after receiving it. If the conditions for acceptance are met, the Patent Office shall determine the date of application, give the application number, and after checking the list of documents, issue an acceptance notice to inform the applicant.
The application documents are not printed, printed, illegible or altered; Or drawings and pictures are not drawn with drawing tools and black ink, and the photos are blurred and altered; Or the application documents are incomplete; Or the name or address of the applicant is not known in the request; Or the patent application category is unclear or uncertain, and the patent application sent directly by foreign units and individuals without foreign-related patent agencies will not be accepted.
(2) The patent application accepted in the preliminary examination stage will automatically enter the preliminary examination stage if the application fee is paid in accordance with the regulations.
Before the preliminary examination, the application for a patent for invention must be examined in confidentiality, and if confidentiality is required, it shall be handled in accordance with the confidentiality procedures.
In the preliminary examination, it is necessary to examine whether there are obvious defects in the application, mainly including whether the contents of the examination fall within the scope of the patent law that does not grant the patent right, whether the obvious lack of technical content does not constitute a technical scheme, whether it lacks singularity, whether the application documents are complete and whether the format meets the requirements.
If it is a foreign applicant, it is necessary to conduct qualification examination and application formalities examination.
If it is unqualified, the Patent Office will notify the applicant to make corrections or statements within the prescribed time limit. If no reply is made within the time limit, the application shall be deemed to be withdrawn.
If the defect has not been eliminated after the reply, it shall be rejected.
Where an application for a patent for invention has passed the preliminary examination, a notice of passing the preliminary examination shall be issued.
In addition to the above examination, the application for a patent for utility model and design shall also be examined whether it is obviously the same as the existing patent, not a new technical scheme or a new design, and no reason for rejection has been found after preliminary examination.
Will directly enter the authorization instruction.
(3) Publication stage The application for a patent for invention shall enter the publication stage from the date when the notice of preliminary examination is issued. If the applicant does not make an early request for publicity, it will not enter the public preparation procedure until 18 months after the application date.
If the applicant requests to be made public in advance, the application will immediately enter the public preparation procedure.
After format review, editing and proofreading, computer processing, typesetting and printing, about three months later, the abstract of its instructions was published in the Patent Gazette, and a brochure was published.
After the application is published, the applicant has the right to temporary protection.
(4) After the publication of the application for a patent for invention in the substantive examination stage, if the applicant makes a request for substantive examination and the request has taken effect, the applicant will enter the substantive examination procedure.
If the applicant fails to make a request for real trial within three years from the date of application, or the request for real trial does not take effect, the application shall be deemed to have been withdrawn.
In the actual trial process, whether the patent application is novel, creative and practical will be comprehensively examined.
After examination, if it is found that the application does not meet the authorization conditions or there are various defects, the applicant will be notified to state his opinions or make amendments within the specified time. If no reply is made within the time limit, the application shall be deemed to have been withdrawn. If the application still fails to meet the requirements after repeated replies, the application shall be rejected.
The actual probation period is very long. If it is not authorized within two years from the date of application, the application maintenance fee shall be paid every year from the third year. Failing to pay within the time limit shall be deemed to have withdrawn the application.
If the substantive examination finds no reason for rejection, it shall enter the authorization procedure as required.
(5) In the authorization stage, the application for a patent for utility model and design has been preliminarily examined, and if the application for a patent for invention has not found any reasons for rejection after substantive examination, the examiner will make an authorization notice and apply for authorization registration preparation. The Patent Office examines the legal effect and completeness of the authorized text, proofreads and modifies the description items of the patent application, and then issues a notice of authorization and a notice of registration. After receiving the notice, the applicant shall go through the registration formalities in accordance with the requirements of the notice and pay the prescribed fees within 2 months. If the registration formalities are completed on schedule, the Patent Office will grant a patent right, issue a patent certificate, record it in the patent register, and announce it in the patent bulletin two months later. Failure to go through the registration formalities in accordance with the provisions shall be regarded as giving up the right to obtain the patent right.