Legal analysis: generally 6- 18 months, the key lies in the specific content of the invention, the auditor's mastery of the invention, the auditor's work plan and the time between the auditor and the applicant or his agent. When the applicant for a patent for invention explicitly requests substantive examination, and within 3 months from the date of receiving the notice from the Patent Office that the application for a patent for invention has entered the substantive examination link, he can actively and explicitly propose amendments to the application for a patent for invention. According to the Patent Law, the examination and approval procedure of an application for a patent for invention includes five links: acceptance, preliminary examination, publication, actual examination and authorization. The application for a patent for utility model or design does not carry out early publication and substantive examination in the examination and approval, but only has three links: acceptance, preliminary examination and authorization. Therefore, the application time is relatively short, and the issuance of certificates is of course fast.
Legal basis: Article 35 of the Patent Law of People's Republic of China (PRC). Within three years from the date of filing, the administrative department for patent in the State Council may, upon the request of the applicant at any time, make a substantive examination of the application. If the applicant fails to request substantive examination within the time limit without justifiable reasons, the application shall be deemed to have been withdrawn.
The patent administrative department of the State Council may, when it deems it necessary, examine the application for a patent for invention on its own.
Article 39 of the Patent Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) Where an application for a patent for invention is rejected after substantive examination, the patent administration department of the State Council shall make a decision to grant the patent right for invention, issue a patent certificate for invention, and register and announce it at the same time. The invention patent right shall take effect as of the date of announcement.