Why do patent applications go to an agency?

Today, Nanjing Huaxun American Patent came to tell you, why do you have to find an agency to apply for a patent?

Arguably, the inventor must know his own technology better than the agent, and there is no problem in applying for it himself. So why is the number of patent agency applications increasing year by year?

The Great Xia summarized the following main reasons:

Preparation of 1. patent application documents

Patent application materials have certain standards and requirements, according to the relevant provisions of the application documents shall include: invention patent request, abstract, abstract drawings (when applicable), description, claims, description drawings (when applicable), each in duplicate.

Although, as mentioned earlier, the inventor's understanding of the technology itself is definitely better than that of the agent, the inventor generally has no experience in writing application materials, and it is easy to make mistakes or write imperfectly, resulting in repeated correction in the later period.

And professional agents, because after professional training, through the relevant national examination, and long-term engaged in related writing work. There will be no error in the file format itself, and it will not affect the application progress.

Secondly, the problem of "technical understanding" that the applicant is worried about is basically non-existent.

Because agents are also divided into "industries", in addition to the fact that they are basically experts in the industry, they will study and learn a lot of technical materials invented before writing the technology, and communicate with the inventor many times, and eventually the technology will be presented in the best state.

Secrecy of 2. technology

Many people have a misunderstanding about applying for a patent, believing that all materials from the beginning to the end of the patent application are confidential. However, there is a core principle of patent application: "publicity for protection", that is to say, all application documents will eventually be presented to the public, and anyone can access it.

When many inventors write their own patented technology, either because they are not clear about this principle, they fully disclose their core secrets in the application materials. In addition to causing their own protection scope to be too narrow, it is easy for anyone to imitate;

Either because they know this principle, they unnecessarily hide their technology too much, resulting in the final patent can not be granted, or the right can not play a protective role.

When writing application materials, experienced agents will not only blur some core data and steps, but also expand the scope of protection of the claims as much as possible to maximize the interests of the applicant.

The above two points are about the problems that may occur when preparing technical materials. However, don't easily think that everything will be fine after the patent application is submitted. In fact, the "9981 difficulty" has just begun.

3. application and reply

Even compared with a few years ago, the speed of patent examination has been greatly accelerated, but the time for patent application is still relatively long, especially the average time for invention patents is one and a half to two years.

However, utility models and exterior designs are fine, and the examination process is not so complicated, but the application for an invention patent will go through the stages of formal examination, disclosure, substantive examination, issuance of examination opinions, etc.

For example, in the disclosure stage, if the patent is not offered to be disclosed in advance, it will not be disclosed until 18 months later. After the disclosure, the substantive examination also requires the applicant to take the initiative to propose, otherwise the patent examination will always be on hold.

Ordinary individuals/enterprises either do not know these regulations or do not have the energy to monitor the application process all the time, because there are not a few cases in which patents are regarded as withdrawn.

In addition

In the process of substantive examination of a patent, if the examiner feels that there is something wrong with the patent, he will issue an examination opinion.

This review opinion needs to be answered within the specified time. If the reply is not timely, the patent will only be invalid.

And the frequency of the issuance of review opinions is not only related to the technology itself, but also closely related to the quality of patent materials.

In addition, unlike trademarks, patents do not directly wait for the issuance of certificates after authorization. The State Council will first issue the "Notice of Patent Authorization" and the "Notice of Registration and Printing". In addition to telling the applicant that the patent is authorized, the applicant is asked to pay for the certificate.

If you miss it, the hard-earned patent will be invalid. After many years of practice, there have been many cases in which the patent has been invalidated because the patent has not been authorized by the applicant and has not been assigned a registration fee.

As the saying goes: professional things to professional people to do. If it is handed over to an agency, there is professional continuous control from beginning to end, and these things will not happen.

Finally, it should be noted that

Suppose the applicant finally gets the certificate, then everything is fine? NO NO NO, the patent still has to be protected for ten or twenty years. These ten or twenty years have to be paid every year! Year! Fee!

Great Xia's previous article also said that if you don't pay the annual fee, you will lose your patent right.

In addition, if the technology is too good, or for other reasons, others can apply for invalidation of the patent. However, individuals or general enterprises do not have the energy and professional knowledge to deal with litigation. To the agency, also can avoid worries.

The most important thing is that if the applicant applies for it himself, all the notices issued by the State Knowledge Bureau in the later period will be sent to the address left by the applicant when he originally applied for the patent, who can guarantee that he will not move and the address of the enterprise will not change for such a long time? And most of these notices are time-sensitive, and if they are missed, they will cause huge losses.

So in the same sentence, professional things are left to professional people to do, technology research and development depends on you, and technology protection depends on our agency, so as to maximize the interests of applicants.