What is a patent document?

Patent literature is the product of patent system, which is an important foundation of patent system and plays an important role in patent examination and international exchange. Patent documents refer to all kinds of official publications published regularly after the patent application documents have been accepted and examined by the national patent authorities according to law. Patent literature has many forms and different carriers, which are introduced below. Patent documents include not only patent applications for inventions (utility models and designs) and descriptions of invention patents, but also other kinds of documents related to inventions, as well as various retrieval reference books published by the Patent Office (such as patent bulletins, patent annual indexes, etc.). Therefore, it can be said that patent documents are the general name of official documents and publications produced by patent offices and international patent organizations in the process of patent examination and approval. Patent documents published in China mainly include: (1) invention patent bulletin, utility model patent bulletin and design patent bulletin; (2) the public statement of the application for a patent for invention and the authorization statement of the patent for invention; (3) Description of the patent for utility model; (4) Annual patent index.