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. However, the application for utility model and design has only three stages, and there is no early publication and substantive examination.
Extended data
Publishing stage
The application for a patent for invention has entered the publication stage since the issuance of the notice of preliminary examination. If the applicant does not make a request for early publication, it will not enter the public preparation procedure until 15 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.
Substantive review stage
After the publication of the application for a patent for invention, if the applicant makes a request for substantive examination and it has taken effect, the applicant will enter the actual trial procedure. Where an application for a patent for invention has not been submitted for trial within three years from the date of application, or the request for trial has not taken effect, the application shall be deemed to have been withdrawn.