What is Patent Prosecution?

Patent prosecution is the process of drafting, filing, and working with the patent office to establish patent protection rights to a unique invention. Patent prosecution includes several steps. It starts with developing a strategy to protect your intellectual property and concludes with responding to an office action.

The prosecution of a patent begins with a distinctive idea or design. The inventor can next compare their idea to what’s currently out there by searching databases of accepted, pending, and rejected patents. This stage of research allows the inventor to see if a patent for a similar invention has already been filed. It can also aid the creator in determining what sets their product apart from others.

A patent must be written with complete, detailed information on the invention and claims to be filed and proceed through the process. It’s usually always necessary to have an image of the design. Once the document is complete, it can be submitted as an official application to the patent office.

The first step for a patent examiner is to ensure that the patent application fits all of the criteria for patentability. This can involve things like originality and ensuring that the claims are patentable. After that, the examiner will move on to prior art investigation, much like the inventor did at the beginning. The examiner will go over all previous patents to make sure the application isn’t similar to anything that has already been approved.

Throughout the procedure, the evaluator and the applicant may interact to better understand the application and accelerate the prosecution. Finally, the examiner will decide whether the patent application should be approved, rejected, or objected to. The examiner will explain why the judgement was made and offer suggestions on how to proceed and what could be changed. This can take the form of an office action, which requires the applicant to submit a response in order to proceed with the application.

The reviewer will either agree with your claims, granting your patent application, or disagree with your claims, denying your patent application. If your patent application is denied, the next stage in the process is to file an appeal. You can withdraw the case if you don’t want to defend the refusal, but you won’t get patent protection. You can also ask for your case to be reconsidered, file an appeal of the final refusal, or have the examination term extended by requesting a continuing examination.

As an initial stage in patent prosecution, you may choose to file a provisional patent application. You can use this application to extend the deadline for filing a patent application for your invention. A non-provisional patent has a 12-month limit from the date of public disclosure of your invention. However, filing a provisional application allows you to extend your time to prepare your non-provisional application by another 12 months. You may lose the option to continue the patent prosecution process if you do not submit within that time frame.

What Is the Importance of Patent Prosecution?

Anyone considering applying for patent protection on an invention should be familiar with each phase of the patent prosecution process. The approval procedure might take years, and there are substantial expenses associated with the applications. You’ll be able to plan for the process and know what to expect in terms of duration and expense after you have a better idea of what’s required.

If you are looking for patent prosecution services, Wissen research has got you covered.

By Anamika Manhas