first understand the basic knowledge of patents

what is an invention patent?

invention is a technical solution to a specific problem by using the laws of nature. Its products or proposed production methods are unprecedented, or the original products and production methods are improved. Patented inventions can be divided into product inventions (such as machines, instruments, equipment and appliances) and method inventions (manufacturing methods).

According to the provisions of China's Patent Law, an invention patent generally goes through the following procedures from application to authorization:

1. It usually takes 21 days to one month to provide a disclosure letter and entrust an agency to write the application documents (this step can be omitted if no agency is entrusted)

2. Submit the application documents, obtain the acceptance notice from the Patent Office, determine the application date, and submit an early public statement on the day of submitting the documents. And request substantive examination, so as to speed up the examination process

3. The Patent Office conducts formal examination of patent application documents for about 2-3 months, and then enters the public preparation stage after passing the preliminary examination

4. The Patent Office publishes the invention application documents for about 6-8 months

5. The Patent Office conducts substantive examination of invention patent documents for about one and a half to two years. During the period, the examiner communicates with the applicant on the essential content of the invention, that is, novelty, creativity and practicality (the entrusted agency communicates with the agency to determine the appropriate scope of protection of the invention), and the communication may go back and forth several times until it is revised to the satisfaction of the examiner

6. The Patent Office issues an authorization notice

7. The applicant goes through the formalities of obtaining a patent certificate

8. After about 2-3 months, the applicant gets a patent certificate

The whole process lasts about 2 and a half years.

what is a utility model patent?

utility model refers to a new practical scheme for the shape, structure or combination of products. It only protects products with certain shapes. Methods Inventions and inventions of powders, liquids and materials without certain shapes can only apply for invention patents. The patent for utility model is granted without substantive examination, with simple procedures and low cost. Therefore, small inventions about tangible handicrafts such as daily necessities, machinery and electrical appliances are more suitable for applying for utility model patents.

what is a design patent?

appearance design refers to a new design that is aesthetically pleasing and suitable for industrial application for the shape, pattern, color or their combination of products. Therefore, the object of protection of design patents is the decorative or artistic design of products. This design can be a plane pattern or a three-dimensional shape, and more commonly it is a combination of the two. The main condition for granting a patent is novelty, and its examination and approval procedures, patent term and utility model patent are the same.

it takes about 6-8 months for the utility model and appearance patent to pass the formal examination instead of the substantive examination procedure. After the actual examination is passed, the patent office will issue a notice of authorization, and the applicant will go through the licensing procedures after receiving the letter, and it will take about 2-3 months to get the patent certificate after paying the licensing fee. The specific time also depends on the speed of the examiner's examination, the informative degree of the applicant's disclosure information and the provision of the attached drawings.

what are the conditions for granting a patent right?

the conditions for granting a patent right include two aspects: formal conditions and substantive conditions.

the so-called formal conditions refer to the necessary file formats and necessary procedures that the patent office should perform for preliminary examination, substantive examination and granting of patent rights. That is to say, the patent application should be made in written form, and the application documents with certain format and content requirements should be submitted.

substantive conditions can determine whether an invention-creation applying for patent protection is patentable, which is the key to determine whether a patent application can be granted a patent right. An invention or utility model that is granted a patent right shall be novel, creative and practical. The essential condition for granting a design is that it is not the same as or similar to a design that has been published in publications at home and abroad before the application date or that has been publicly used in China.

Novelty means that the invention or utility model for which a patent is applied does not belong to the prior art, and the design for which a patent is applied is different from or not similar to the existing design.

Creativity means that the invention or utility model for which a patent is applied is more progressive and advanced than the existing technology of the same type.

Practicality means that an invention or utility model must be applicable to practical purposes and can produce positive effects.

It should be noted that:

China's patent examination system determines that the invention requirements are subject to formal examination and substantive examination, while the utility model and design are only subject to formal examination and not substantive examination (so the authorization time is very fast), so many agencies claim to be 111% authorized. This is no problem. The key point is that it may mislead the applicant: the authorized patent is considered to be an effective patent. In fact, the utility model and design patent may be invalidated without substantive examination. This is a fact, which is determined by the patent examination system in China and is also the patent reality in China.

it should be said that both invention patents and utility patents, as long as they are patents, must meet the requirements of the three characteristics of patents, but they do not meet the requirements of the three characteristics of patents. Even if the patent certificate is obtained through examination in the application process, it may be invalid and will be invalid in subsequent infringement lawsuits.

The patent system for utility models makes the quality of patents mixed, and a large number of "non-patents" are mixed in the ranks of "patents", which makes the public have some doubts about the patent itself. It can be predicted that after the number of patent applications reaches a certain level, there will definitely be a reform, and all of them will be subject to substantive examination, which is certain. From the patent applicant's point of view, sometimes it may be cost-effective to spend less money in exchange for a possibility in a short time. At present, there are more enterprises applying for patents than individuals, and the public agrees with patents. Therefore, instead of investing huge advertising expenses, it is better to invest less money to apply for patents. At least it can play a considerable advertising effect.

2. There are two ways to apply for a patent: entrusting a patent agency to act as an agent or writing application documents by yourself.

It should be said that writing patent application documents is a highly technical job. Moreover, applying for a patent is not only such a simple matter as writing patent application documents, but also involves searching comparison documents in the fields involved in the patent. If the comparison documents disclose the invention contents, the agent should communicate with the inventor whether the technical problems can be changed and the corresponding technical scheme. If the inventor cannot add new contents in this case, the client is advised to withdraw the case. When writing the application documents, the claims and instructions should take into account the possible problems in answering the review opinions and how to remedy them. If it is invalid, only the claim can be modified and the content cannot be removed from the specification; Is the scope clearly defined in case of infringement? Whether it is possible to be bypassed, etc., it can be said that before applying for a patent, a qualified agent should have a global grasp and understanding of the latest technical content in the field involved in the invention, and can make a layout for the whole application on the basis of considering the interests of the applicant, regarding whether to apply (which can be kept as a technical secret), how to apply (whether it is necessary to apply abroad for invention, utility or appearance), and possible existing technologies (how to avoid them). Being able to do the above is the basic requirement of a mature and experienced agent. It is the applicant's luck to find such an agent, and the scope of patent protection can get the strongest protection.

Unfortunately, in the current domestic atmosphere, applicants are more concerned with the price, how to minimize the agency fee and quality is second. Perhaps they think that after the operation of the agent, the results are almost the same. Faced with such requirements from customers, agents have to lower their service standards. Most agents only do file transmission and format conversion of technical disclosure content, which saves time and effort, and the quotation can be lowered all the way, and the applicant is also very happy. As for authorization, there is no problem with utility model and design. As long as the scope of protection is minimized, the examiner has no opinion, and everyone is happy. When the patent really needs to work, when the tiger comes out, the applicant will find that there is a sick cat in the cage, wasting the application fee, agency fee and annual fee in vain, and only getting a useless blank sheet of paper.

Fortunately, most patent applicants don't care about the patent quality, but only about the number of applications. As long as the application number is used, they can meet the requirements of the government, declare high-tech enterprises, be tax-free, declare high-tech enterprises to the outside world, advertise and publicize, and attract laymen who don't understand. So this kind of game has been going on.

In order to apply for a patent, many companies or individuals can prepare an application document that meets the formal requirements by temporarily looking at the patent law and learning the writing requirements (you can study it on the website of China National Intellectual Property Administration Patent Office in China). The application process is also smooth, the authorization is smooth, and the certificate is obtained. The key point is that the "value" of this patent is gone, but it is just a paper tiger used to scare people.

Therefore, we suggest that if the applicant wants his patent to really expand the scope of protection and really play the role of a "tiger" in the market, he should not worry about the money, or ask the best and most professional agent to help you plan.

Choice of agency and agent:

My personal opinion is for reference only. Patents belong to technical fields, and so do agents. Because of different technical backgrounds, each agent has different specialized fields. Generally speaking, it is basically divided into mechanical, chemical, electrical and communication fields. How to judge the quality of agents? On the one hand, you can search the agent in the patent search column on the website of China National Intellectual Property Administration Patent Office, and you can find out all the cases that he has represented and judge the field and level of the agent according to the fields to which these cases belong. If an agent spans three categories (machinery, chemistry and electricity), we do not recommend choosing such a "generalist" agent, which is broad and broad, and will not be expert and refined. We also don't recommend blind obedience to agents who have been in business for many years, because before the mid-1991s, agents didn't have to take exams, which were basically compiled by public institutions, and the requirements for patent writing were very simple, so this experience of groping didn't make much sense. After 1999, the patent agency industry began to be formalized, and a large number of business establishment agencies began to set up corporate companies from affiliated units, and the agent exams in recent years began to be formalized. The historical opportunity of China's accession to the WTO has also attracted a large number of talents to flood into this industry. Therefore, we believe that the agents who entered this industry in 2111 and 2112 are becoming the backbone of this industry with a broad international vision after about five years of training, and their agency skills can be said to be quite mature. However, the former old agent may not be able to do better because of the influence of the former irregular agency format. I have come into contact with such an agent. I am almost 81 years old, and I still linger on the agency case. I don't agree with the agency quality. It is annoying those agents who carry out the signboard of which institute, university or patent office examiner or reexamination board. Such experience is basically meaningless for agency experience.

Agency: We tend to choose an agency with a complete range of industries and young and middle-aged agents, which is more effective. Of course, there is also an element of luck. You just met an agent with mature agency experience, rich theory and practice, and serious responsibility. That is the best.

3. Materials required for preparing to apply for a patent

If you intend to entrust a patent agency, please ask the applicant to prepare the following application materials:

To apply for a patent for invention, you need to provide the following materials:

1. Please provide the applicant's name (full name), address and zip code; 2. A copy of the applicant's business license, organization code certificate or personal identity card; 3. Name, address and zip code of the inventor (natural person); 4. Telephone number, fax number and contact address of the contact person handling the patent application for the invention.

2. Go through the entrustment formalities (official seal of the unit or signature of natural person).

3. Submit a technical disclosure. For your convenience in writing the disclosure and for our better understanding of your inventions, please write the disclosure in the following format.

1. Name of the invention

(which simply and clearly reflects the technical content of the invention as a product, device or method (generally limited to 25 words))

2. Technical field

(briefly describe the technical field, such as: the invention belongs to an automatic temperature control device, and the invention relates to a heat treatment method of xx materials, etc. )

Third, the existing technology (background technology)

(Analyze and explain the similar existing technology that is closest to the invention, and explain it with the help of the attached drawings when necessary, including the structure, the position and connection relationship or conditions between components, the technological process, etc., and point out the problems in the existing technology in a practical way and analyze the existing reasons as much as possible).

IV. Summary of the Invention

1. Purpose of the invention (Pointing out the technical problems to be solved by the invention in a practical way. )

2. Technical solution (it should be described clearly, completely and accurately, especially the invention points that are different from the existing technology should be described as clearly as possible, not only the basic principles of the invention, so that ordinary technicians in the field can implement it, and when describing each technical means of the technical solution (including the position and connection relationship of each structure), the role it plays in the invention should be explained accordingly. If it is difficult to describe it clearly only in words, please explain it with the attached drawings. Alternative technical scheme or alternative technical elements, method steps, etc. of the invention. If there is, it should be put forward as far as possible to form subordinate claims. )

Attachment: If English abbreviations or codes with special meanings appear, please specify their meanings and Chinese names commonly used in the industry.

3. technical effects (corresponding to the technical problems and technical solutions to be solved by the present invention, the effects that can be achieved by the present invention (including social, economic and technical effects, preferably with specific data) are described concretely and realistically, and scientific analysis and test results are the most convincing evidence. )

V. Drawings and Brief Description of Drawings

(Necessary drawings (i.e. structural schematic drawings, not engineering drawings) for describing the present invention should be provided, which can clearly reflect the innovative points, and various drawing methods can be adopted for this purpose. Numbering and naming the components or structures in a unified way, and providing drawings related to the prior art when necessary. )

VI. Specific modes of implementation

(enumerate the examples of realizing the invention (the concrete embodiment of the inventive concept), and give a concrete example of realizing the invention so as to partially reflect the inventive content of the invention, including electrical components and their electrical connection relations. If it is a method, please specify the specific methods of each part, including static relations, dynamic relations and action effects)

Attachment: If English abbreviations appear or have special significance,