Patent application
2. 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. The application for a patent for utility model or design does not carry out early publication and substantive examination in the examination and approval, but only has three stages: acceptance, preliminary examination and authorization.
3. After receiving an application for a patent for invention, the Patent Office, after preliminary examination, finds that it conforms to the provisions of the Patent Law, and shall publish it 18 months after the date of application. The Patent Office may also publish its application at an early date upon the request of the applicant. Therefore, the preliminary examination of an application for a patent for invention is a necessary procedure after accepting an application for a patent for invention and before its publication.
Patent application