What is the examination and approval procedure for design patents?

According to the Patent Law, the examination and approval procedure of an application for a patent for invention includes five stages: acceptance, preliminary examination, publication, actual examination and authorization. An application for a patent for utility model or design does not need to be published in advance and examined in substance, so there are only three stages: 1. Patent application acceptance stage 2. If the application fee is paid in accordance with the provisions in the preliminary examination stage, the patent application will automatically enter the preliminary examination stage. An application for a patent for invention shall be examined for confidentiality before the preliminary examination, and if confidentiality is required, it shall be handled in accordance with the confidentiality procedures. Applications for patents for utility models and designs shall also be given three months before the preliminary examination to actively modify the applications. Preliminary examination refers to examining whether the patent application has the documents specified in Article 26 or Article 27 of the Patent Law and other necessary documents, to see whether these documents conform to the prescribed format, and to examine the following matters: (1) Whether the application for a patent for invention obviously belongs to the provisions of Articles 5 and 25 of the Patent Law, or does not conform to the provisions of Article 18 and Paragraph 1 of Article 19 of the Patent Law, or obviously does not conform to the provisions of Article 31 of the Patent Law. (2) Whether the application for a patent for utility model obviously belongs to the provisions of Articles 5 and 25 of the Patent Law, or does not conform to the provisions of Articles 18 and 19, paragraph 1, or obviously does not conform to the provisions of Articles 26, paragraphs 3 and 4, Article 31, paragraph 1, Article 33, Article 2, paragraph 2, Article 13, paragraph 1, Articles 18 to 23 and Article 43, paragraph 1 of the Patent Law. (3) Whether the application for a patent for design obviously belongs to the provisions of Article 5 of the Patent Law, or does not conform to the provisions of Article 18 and Article 19, paragraph 1, or obviously does not conform to the provisions of Article 31, paragraph 2, Article 33, Article 2, paragraph 3, Article 13, paragraph 1 and Article 43 of the Patent Law, or the patent right cannot be obtained according to the provisions of Article 9 of the Patent Law. The Patent Office will notify the applicant of the examination opinions and ask him to state his opinions or make corrections within a specified time limit; If the applicant fails to reply within the time limit, his application shall be deemed to have been withdrawn. If, after the applicant has stated his opinions or made corrections, the Patent Office still considers that it does not conform to the provisions of the preceding paragraph, the application will be rejected. 3. Substantive review stage