Time limit for examination and approval of patent applications

The examination and approval procedures and cycles of invention patents are different from those of utility models and designs. Invention patents should go through the stages of acceptance, preliminary examination, early disclosure, substantive examination and authorization announcement. Utility models and designs only go through three stages: acceptance, preliminary examination and authorization announcement. Therefore, the approval period of invention patents generally takes 3-5 years, and the approval period of utility models and designs generally takes half a year to 1 year. Where an applicant applies for a patent abroad during the examination and approval of a patent application, he shall first file an application with the China National Intellectual Property Administration Patent Office, entrust a foreign-related patent agency designated by the State Council with the approval of the relevant department of the State Council, and issue a certificate of priority issued by the China National Intellectual Property Administration Patent Office. You can apply for a patent directly to the Patent Office of a certain country, or you can apply for a patent to many countries through the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) procedure. Since 1 994,65438+10,1,China has become a signatory to the PCT, and China National Intellectual Property Administration Patent Office has become a PCT acceptance bureau, an international retrieval unit and an international preliminary examination unit. Anyone who applies for a patent abroad through the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) may directly submit an application to the China National Intellectual Property Administration Patent Office, and the examination and approval period is 30 months+the examination and approval time in the designated country.