In China, there are three types of patent applications: design patent applications, utility model patent applications and invention patent applications.
To apply for a design patent, you need to prepare six-sided appearance views of the product, fill in the "Design Patent Application" together with a brief description of the design, and submit the application documents to the National Patent Office. . After submitting the application, you can get the "Patent Acceptance Notice" in about one month; the Patent Office will issue the "Notice of Grant of Design Patent Rights" and "Notice of Registration Procedures" in about six months; after paying the patent registration fee and annual fee , the certificate will be issued in about two months. Utility model patents and invention patent applications Both utility model patents and invention patents need to write a patent specification and submit it to the National Patent Office together with the patent application. Since the Patent Law stipulates that invention patents are subject to substantive examination only after the applied patent specification is disclosed, submitting an early disclosure statement is to enter substantive examination as soon as possible and shorten the patent application cycle. Therefore, invention patents also need to submit two documents: "Request for Advance Disclosure Statement" and "Request for Substantive Examination". After submitting the application for a utility model patent, you can get the "Patent Acceptance Notice" in about one month; the Patent Office will issue the "Notice of Granting Utility Model Patent Rights" and "Notice of Registration Procedures" in about six to eight months; pay for patent registration After the fees and annual fees are paid, the certificate will be issued in about two months. After submitting an application for an invention patent, you can get the "Patent Acceptance Notice" in about one month; after submitting the application, a preliminary review stage will be conducted. If the review is passed, the specification of the applied patent will be disclosed in accordance with the advance public statement, which will enter the substantive review stage; Once qualified, a "Notice of Grant of Invention Patent Rights" and "Notice of Registration Procedures" will be issued. After paying the fees in time, the certificate will be issued in about two months. The invention patent application process takes about three years. If you apply for the above three types of patents individually (limited to individuals from mainland China), you can submit a "Fee Reduction Application" together to request for reduction of application fees and the first three annual fees.