Three categories of U.S. patents: 1. Utility patent for invention; 2. Plant patent for plant invention; 3. Design patent. The application procedures include provisional application (Provisional) and normal application (non-provisional), continuing application (continuing application), partial continuation application (Continuation-in-Part Application), and reissue procedures (Reissues). Provisional application: 1. In order to obtain the application date as early as possible, there is no need to claim, and the fee is lower than that of normal application. 2. It can be converted into a normal application. 3. If you do not request to convert to a normal application within 12 months from the date of application, it will be regarded as abandoned and cannot be restored. 4. A normal application can claim the priority of a provisional application, but not vice versa. 5. Only inventions can enjoy the priority of provisional applications. There is no provisional application for designs. Normal application (non-provisional): 1. A provisional application can be converted into a normal application. 2. You can take the initiative to modify (preliminary amendment) before receiving the first OA. Under normal circumstances, it is disclosed in 18 months. The actual review starts automatically from the application (queuing up for review). Generally, the first OA is issued in 14 months. As long as the applicant requests not to be disclosed in advance, the PTO will not be disclosed in advance and will be disclosed in ISSUE. . 3. Before the OA involving patentability, other OAs may be issued, such as divisional cases, etc. The term is one month. 4. OA is usually done twice, and the second OA is usually the final OA. The final OA response period is generally three months. It is best for the applicant to respond within two months, so the examiner will respond within 3 months. Issue advisory action within the deadline, so that the applicant’s next action can be no longer than three months without paying extension fees. In the advisory action, it will tell whether the modifications in the reply to the "final office action" are accepted, the status of the claim, and the result of the applicant's response. Even if the "final office action" opinion is negative, you should respond promptly. 5. The examiner is generally not allowed to make changes when responding to the final OA (even if the defects pointed out in the notice can be overcome), because the examiner needs to search again. Applicants can overcome deficiencies in the final OA by filing for continued examination (RCE). 6. Response to advisory action: 1) If the applicant believes that the possibility of overcoming the defects through modification is high, then propose to continue the RCE examination; 2) If the applicant believes that the possibility of overcoming the defects through modification is unlikely, and disagrees with the examiner’s view , then consider filing an appeal (rarely used); 3) By filing a continuation application, you can obtain the claims agreed by the examiner on the one hand, and continue to argue for disagreements to avoid being completely rejected. 4) Meet when necessary. RCE is generally proposed and appeal is rarely used because it is expensive and takes a long time. Continuing application: Continuing application: The description cannot add new content, and the claims may be different, but they must involve the same subject matter as the claims in the parent case. Mainly apply under the following two circumstances: a) After final rejection, the applicant wants to modify his rights. b) The examiner allows some claims but rejects some claims (such as claims with a wider scope). In order to allow the allowed claims to be granted as soon as possible, the applicant can delete the rejected claims when replying to the OA. . For deleted and rejected claims, the applicant may file a continuation application and at the same time amend the claims. Continuation-in-Part Application: New content is added to the description, and new claims can be summarized based on the new content added to the description. There is no difference from filing a new application. The protection period is calculated from the filing date of the parent case.
Reissue procedures (Reissues): ? Correct errors in the authorized patent and modify the authorized patent ? The patentee proposes ? No new content is allowed to be added ? Expansion of the scope of claims is not allowed two years after authorization