According to the Patent Law, the approval process for invention patent applications includes five stages: acceptance, preliminary examination, publication, substantive examination and authorization. Utility model or design patent applications do not undergo early publication and substantive examination during approval, so there are only three stages.
Substantial examination stage
After the invention patent application is published, if the applicant has completed the substantive examination request procedures (filed a substantive examination request and paid the substantive examination fee of 2,500 yuan), The application will enter the substantive examination process, and the Patent Office will issue the applicant a "Notice of Entering the Substantive Examination Stage." If the applicant has not completed the substantive examination request procedures, the Patent Office will wait for the applicant to complete the substantive examination request procedures; if three years have passed since the application date, and the applicant has not submitted a substantive examination request or the substantive examination request has not taken effect, the application will be deemed invalid. considered withdrawn.
Applications that have entered the practical review process will wait for the practical review in the order in which they entered the practical review process. During the actual examination, the examiner will conduct a comprehensive review on the basis of the search to see whether the patent application meets the novelty, creativity, practicality and other substantive conditions stipulated in the patent law. After review, if it is found that the conditions for authorization are not met or that there are various deficiencies, the applicant shall be notified to state opinions or make modifications within the specified time (the time limit for replying to the first notice of examination opinions is 4 months). If the applicant fails to respond within the specified period, the application will be deemed withdrawn. If the application still does not meet the requirements after at least one reply or modification, it will be rejected. Due to the complexity of the actual review, the review cycle generally takes one year or more.
If no reason for rejection is found in the invention patent application during the substantive examination, or if the defects are eliminated after the applicant has revised and stated his opinions, the examiner will prepare an authorization notice and the application will enter the authorization preparation stage as required.
5. Authorization stage
After preliminary examination of utility model and design patent applications, and if no reason for rejection is found in the invention patent application after substantive examination, the examiner will prepare an authorization notice and apply Enter authorization registration preparation. After the authorization form examiner has reviewed the legal validity and completeness of the authorization text, and has proofread, modified and confirmed that the bibliographic items of the patent application are correct, the Patent Office will issue an authorization notice and a registration formalities notice.
After receiving the authorization notice and the registration formalities notice, the applicant shall complete the registration formalities in accordance with the requirements of the notice within 2 months. The applicant shall pay the patent registration fee, announcement printing fee, stamp duty and annual fee when going through the registration procedures. The invention applicant shall pay the application maintenance fee for each year, excluding the year of authorization. Failure to pay the fee upon expiration will be deemed as failure to complete the registration procedures.
If the registration procedures are completed and the prescribed fees are paid within the time limit, the Patent Office will grant the patent right, issue a patent certificate, record it in the patent register, and announce it in the Patent Gazette. Patent rights take effect from the date of patent announcement.
Anyone who fails to complete the registration procedures as required, or fails to complete the registration procedures within the time limit, will be deemed to have given up the right to obtain the patent right