1. Submit the application
Application documents can be submitted in paper form by mail or online electronic means.
2, acceptance and preliminary examination
If the application submitted by the applicant meets the requirements, the British Patent Office will issue an acceptance notice, confirm the application date and give the application number. At present, in the case of submitting an electronic application, you can generally receive an electronic acceptance notice on the same day.
3. British patent search
After receiving the retrieval form submitted by the applicant, the British Patent Office will retrieve the published existing technology to determine whether the application is novel or obvious, and send a copy of the retrieved document to the applicant. If one or more places in the application do not meet the formal requirements, the British Patent Office will also send a notice to the applicant. It takes 3-4 months for the British Patent Office to receive the form requested by the applicant and get the search results.
4. Publication of patent application
If the application documents meet the requirements and the search has been completed, the application will be published together with the search report on the application date or priority date 18 months.
Before the application is published, the British Patent Office will inform the applicant of the expected publication time and the time to complete the preparation for publication. If the applicant wishes to avoid publishing or amending the claim by withdrawing the application and include it in the published application, he must submit the withdrawal request or amendment document before the time of completing the publication preparation.
5. Substantive review
The applicant shall make a request for substantive examination within 6 months after the publication of the patent application and pay the substantive examination fee. If the request is not made or the fee is not paid within this period, the application will be considered as withdrawn.
After receiving the applicant's request for substantive examination and the fee for substantive examination, the British Patent Office will conduct a comprehensive examination of the application documents to evaluate whether the invention is novel and creative, and whether the specification and claims meet the authorization requirements.