United States Patent Formal Application

U.S. patent applications are usually divided into two categories, one is a provisional application, and the other is a formal application, which can also be called a non-provisional application. United States Patent and Trademark Office

(USPTO) In order to facilitate management, the formal application is divided into the following six forms: first, the original application; second, the full continuation of the application; third, the partial continuation of the application; fourth, the division of the application; fifth, the alternative application; sixth, the international application.

Formal Application:

Usually patent applications:

Usually the basic requirements of the application are specified in 35 U.S.C. Section III. First, when applying for a patent, the inventor or his authorized person shall submit a written application document; second, the fee shall be paid within the statutory time limit. Therefore, the four elements of a U.S. patent application are: ① the specification, that is, the description of the invention and at least one claim; ② provide drawings when necessary; ③ oath or statement, usually signed by the inventor, and declare that I have read the application, II believe that I am the first inventor of the invention, III undertake the obligation to disclose any material information; ④ legal fees payable. Among them, the first two elements are the basic conditions for obtaining the application date. Usually, a normal application can only get two advice notices for the applicant. And the applicant and the examiner through the two opinions notice often can not reach a consensus. At this time, in addition to abandoning the application and filing an appeal, the applicant can also continue the review of the case by submitting a request for continuation or continuation of the review. In other words, through the request to continue the application or to continue the examination, the applicant has the opportunity to talk to the examiner again.

2. Continue to apply

There are three types of continuing applications, full continuing applications, partial continuing applications and divisive applications.

(1) The conditions that must be met to continue the application

① At the time of filing the application, the parent application shall be at the review stage and the case has not been closed;

(2) at least one of the inventors of the continuing application and the parent application is the same, that is, it should be filed by the original applicant;

③ The text of the instruction manual for continuing the application shall be based on the application text of the parent case;

④ The parent application shall be a formal application;

⑤ The application fee shall also be paid for continuing the application. On the basis of the above principles, the three types of continuing applications have different characteristics.

Full Continuation Application

The specification of the full continuation application should be fully consistent with the parent application, I .e., it should not contain any new subject matter, and its claims should be different from the parent application. In this case, all of its subjects are entitled to the filing date of the parent application. There are usually two cases in which a full continuation application can be made.

① When the claims have been completely rejected in the parent case, the applicant puts forward new amendments or statements of opinions, and new problems or further discussions are needed, the applicant can apply for further review;

② Some of the claims in the parent case are required to be deleted so that the parent case can be authorized. The applicant may amend these claims deleted from the parent case or maintain

Part (3) Continue Application

During the review of the parent case, the applicant cannot add claims that are not supported by its specification, and the applicant's invention has obtained new progress. In this case, the applicant can submit a partial continuation application, and some topics are the same as the parent case., You can also add some new topics. Among them, the same part as the parent case has the application date of the parent case, and the new content added only has its own application date. Usually new applications are filed on the date of the parent application. When there is a conflict of rights and comparative literature, they use the actual application date. As new themes emerge, new inventors can be added.

(4) Application for division

It is a continuing application based on the parent case. It is separated from the application under review, is a separate and distinct invention, and has been in the parent.

The application was made public. A division application may differ in wording, but not in substance from the disclosure of the parent application.

3. Requests for continuing review

This is a new type of review added by the U. S. SPTO in May 2000. It is not a new application, but only a request for continued review of the original application. Therefore, the procedure is simple and there is no need to resubmit the application documents. This request should be made after the approval process is completed and before the subsequent process (e. g., payment of the filing fee, waiver of the application, appeal to the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals) begins.

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