What preparations do I need to make to apply for a patent?

Preparation before applying for a patent: To apply for a patent and obtain a patent right, you need to meet a series of conditions, first of all, you must meet substantive requirements. Inventions and utility models that can be patented should be novel, creative and practical; The design that can be patented shall be different from or similar to the design that has been published in domestic and foreign publications or used in China before the date of application, and shall not conflict with the legal prior rights of others. Secondly, to apply for a patent, it is necessary to meet the formal requirements stipulated in the patent law and perform various procedures. For example, within 3 years from the date of filing, the applicant for a patent for invention must submit a request for substantive examination to the patent administration department of the State Council, otherwise the application will be deemed to have been withdrawn; Where the applicant claims the right of priority, it shall state it in the request at the same time when submitting the patent application, otherwise it shall be regarded as not claiming the right of priority; If a technical feature is only disclosed in the specification but not in the claim, or the technical scheme of the claim cannot be summarized from the contents disclosed in the specification, the claim is not protected by the patent law because it is not supported by the specification. In addition to the above requirements, there are other provisions. If these regulations are not met, the patent application cannot be successful. In this way, the time and money invested by the applicant in the invention-creation stage and patent application stage will not be rewarded. Therefore, the patent applicant should apply for a patent under the guidance of a professional organization, and make the following preparations before applying:

First, whether to apply for a patent should consider the market prospect of the invention.

Due to the application fee and examination fee, as well as the annual fee and agency fee for maintaining the patent, whether the patent can bring economic benefits to the applicant is the first issue to be considered. If it is predicted that there will be a bigger market after the patent is converted into a product, or that the patent can prevent competitors' inventions, so that competitors' inventions fall into the scope of patent protection of our enterprise, then applying for this patent is the right and wise choice.

Second, make a preliminary judgment on whether the project to be patented can be patented.

The judgment of patentability must rely on patent retrieval and domestic use survey. The result of patent retrieval is related to the scope of retrieval, at least patent literature should be retrieved, because patent literature contains the latest technical information at home and abroad. The patent examination cooperation center under the Patent Office has paid for the search service before applying for a patent, which is the quickest way to investigate the existing technology. On the basis of patent search and domestic use survey, patentability can be judged.

(A) the judgment of novelty

1. Before filing a patent application, no identical invention was published in domestic and foreign publications. The publications here include not only books, newspapers and periodicals, technical manuals, product catalogues and other pieces of paper that record technical or design contents, but also various films, CDs and records made by means of electricity, light and photography.

2. Before the patent application is submitted, it has not been publicly used in China, or is known to the public in other ways. The so-called public use refers to the situation that the public can understand its technical content through manufacture, use, sale, import or model demonstration; The so-called other ways are known to the public, mainly referring to oral publicity, but not limited to oral conversation, seminar speech, radio or television.

3. Before the filing of the application, no one else filed a patent application with the Patent Office for the same invention-creation, and it was recorded in the patent application documents published after the filing date.

Creative judgment

Creative judgment is much more complicated than novelty judgment, and it must be completed with the help of professional institutions. Creative invention means that compared with the existing technology, it should have outstanding substantive characteristics and remarkable progress; Creative utility model means that compared with the existing technology, it should have substantial characteristics and progress. Creative judgment is usually divided into the following three steps:

1, to determine the closest existing technology, usually the patent literature retrieved by the patent;

2. Determine the distinguishing features between the application of the invention and the closest prior art and the technical problems actually solved;

3. Judge whether the application of the claimed invention is obvious to those skilled in the art..

(3) Practical judgment

The utility model should be a technical scheme that can be made or used by technicians in the technical field and can produce positive effects.

Three, the applicant should keep the contents of the application confidential before applying.

If there are internal and external personnel involved in the invention test or appraisal, they should be required to sign a confidentiality agreement. If others disclose their contents without consent, the applicant shall file a patent application within 6 months after the disclosure. Where the contents of the application are first publicly published at an academic conference or technical conference organized by the relevant competent authorities in the State Council or national academic organizations, and first exhibited at an international exhibition sponsored or recognized by the China government, an application for a patent shall be filed within six months in accordance with the provisions of Article 24 of the Patent Law.

Fourth, look for skilled agents.

According to the provisions of the patent law, once an application is submitted, it cannot be substantially modified, so the application documents, especially the claims and specifications, are not well written, which will become irreparable defects and may even lead to the rejection of the patent. In the agency business of patent application, some patent agents do not know much about the rules of infringement litigation in the future, and ask too little about the scope of patent protection, and write some unnecessary technical features into the scope of protection of independent claims. In this way, competitors can easily avoid patents without infringement. However, if the patent agent is too broad in the scope of patent protection, it may fall into the scope of patent protection of others and be unable to obtain patent authorization. Even after being authorized, it is easy for competitors to declare the patent invalid. Others reject the patent application on the grounds that the specification cannot summarize the technical scheme of the claim. At present, in China, patent application is the business of patent agents, and the subsequent patent invalidation and patent litigation are mostly the business of lawyers, so entrusting a patent lawyer who is proficient in both patent agency and legal business should be a better choice for patent application.

Whether to apply for a patent for invention is the result of the applicant weighing many factors. As long as the patent right has certain economic and social value, it is worthwhile to pay the upfront investment as appropriate.

If in doubt, please visit China Patent Network. com。