The applicant submits an international application that meets the requirements of PCT format in one language and pays a set of fees.
Step 2: International search
ISA (one of the major patent offices in the world) searches for public documents that may affect the patentability of inventions and gives opinions on the patentability of inventions.
Step 3: International announcement
The contents of the international application will be made public as soon as possible after the earliest application date 18 months expires.
Step 4: Supplementary international search (optional)
It is conducted by an international retrieval unit that is willing to provide supplementary retrieval without participating in the main retrieval, so as to find the published documents that cannot be retrieved by the international retrieval unit that conducts the main retrieval due to the diversity of existing technologies in the language and technical fields.
Step 5: International preliminary review (optional)
At the request of the applicant, after the international publication (usually in the case of modifying the original application), the international retrieval unit will conduct additional patent analysis.
Step 6: National Stage
After the PCT procedure is completed, the applicant begins to seek patent authorization directly from the patent office of the country (or region) that wishes to obtain a patent.