According to the Patent Law of People's Republic of China (PRC), the application process of invention patent includes five steps: acceptance, preliminary examination, publication, actual examination and authorization.
After receiving the applicant's request for substantive examination, the Patent Office shall start the substantive examination. The examiner issues a notice of examination opinions, evaluates the novelty, creativity and practicability of the invention application, and points out the substantive defects in the application documents. The applicant shall reply to the examination opinions and modify the application documents when necessary.
If the applicant's reply overcomes the examination opinions, the examiner will issue a notice of granting the patent right.
If the applicant's reply does not overcome the examination opinions, the examiner will issue a notice of examination opinions or a notice of rejection again.
Finally, the applicant needs to go through the registration formalities after receiving the notice of granting the patent right. The applicant shall pay the patent registration fee, authorized annual fee and announcement printing fee within the prescribed time limit, and pay the stamp duty on the patent certificate. The applicant can obtain a patent certificate after going through the registration formalities.