What is the substantive examination of patent?

To put it simply, there are three kinds of domestic patents: invention patents, utility model patents and design patents, among which only invention patents can be authorized through "preliminary examination" and "substantive examination", and the other two can only be authorized through "preliminary examination". In addition, the main difference between substantive examination and preliminary examination is: 1. The substantive examination is conducted at the request of the applicant, and the applicant needs to pay the fee at the same time. If the applicant fails to pay the fee or make a request within the prescribed time limit, even if the application for invention has been published, it will be regarded as withdrawn, that is, the contribution to society is futile and the patent right cannot be obtained. The request for preliminary examination was made by default when the application was submitted. Applicants only need to pay the basic application fee and publication fee and submit documents that meet the legal requirements, so that their applications can enter the preliminary examination procedure. 2. The content of substantive examination is much more than that of preliminary examination, and the requirements are relatively strict, which puts forward higher standards in novelty, creativity and practicality, disclosure of instructions, and whether the writing of claims meets the requirements. If it meets the standard, it will be authorized, and if it does not meet the standard, it will be rejected. 3. Because the examiner's standard is higher and the workload is bigger, the duration of the substantive examination procedure is much longer than that of the preliminary examination. For example, the preliminary examination may only take 3 months, while the substantive examination often takes 1-3 years or even longer. During this period, the applicant needs to submit the reply and amendment opinions to the application documents within the specified time according to the requirements of the examiner until the application documents meet the authorization standards. Otherwise, the examiner has the right to refuse. To sum up, regarding whether the national patent application needs physical objects, it should be noted that at the time of application, patents are generally divided into utility model patents and design patents, of which only invention patents need to pass "preliminary examination" and "substantive examination" to obtain authorization. Generally speaking, national patent applications do not need physical objects.