Getting patent for the new inventions or technologies developed by you, marks that they legally belong to you. It prevents others from copying or misusing your patent and only you get the benefits of your invention. However, there are set of legal processes known as patent prosecution process that must be followed to get your patent.
When you follow these legal processes effectively and responsibly, your journey to patent grant becomes easy and smooth. In the given article we will talk in detail about patent prosecution process, so stay tuned.
Also read: patent licensing.
What Is Patent Prosecution Process?
Patent prosecution is the process of presenting legal arguments to the patent office for the patentability of your invention. Under this come all the processes involved from filing your patent application to getting the patent for your invention.
So, you can conclude that there is a lot of interaction that takes place between you and patent office when you decide to get patent for your invention. This interaction is termed as patent prosecution process.
Also read: Benefits of patent paralegal service.
Processes Followed During Patent Prosecution
Each step involved in patent prosecution can alone bring office action if not followed properly. Hence, all of them hold prime importance and must be given careful thought. They are as follows –
Drafting The Patent Application –
Most important step of patent prosecution process, drafting the patent application means mentioning all the details about your invention and what can be its future impacts. Thus, it gives a detailed picture of your invention to the patent examiner.
To make your patent application more comprehensive you can attach patent drawings that explain your invention visually. So, make sure that the draft you have prepared is successful in describing the novelty and future applicability of your invention.
Also read: Why to hire virtual IP paralegal?
Filling The Patent Application –
Once the draft is prepared and you are confident that it can provide the patentability to your invention. The next step in patent prosecution process needs you to file the drafted patent application. So, select the regions all around world where you want your patent to get registered.
Next step is to identify the patent offices in those regions such as EPO in EU and USPTO in the U.S.A . You the need to submitt your patent application with these offices.
Patent Examination And Its Report (Office Action Or Grant Of Patent) –
This is the patent prosecution process which is of prime concern for many people in patent prosecution. Once you file the patent application for your invention, the examiner at patent office determines two things. Whether your application can be granted patent or not.
He does it on few basic parameters like, is your patent novel? Is it applicable in future? After analysing your patent application on these parameters, he issues the examination report. The report has only two things, either your application gets rejected (office action) or your application is accepted (grant of patent).
Note that your application can also get reject if there are formal errors in your application no matter how novel your invention is. Thus patent proofreading is also an important part of patent prosecution process. It ensures no errors are present in your application before filing.
- Response To Office Action –
As stated above, if your application receives rejection, the examiner will send you a rejection report mentioning the cause of same. You also get a chance to refile your application (if you wish so) after rectifying all the errors mentioned in report. However, you need to refile the application within the time limit given by patent office.
After refiling of your application a hearing takes place at patent office and you finally get the patent grant if you match all the criteria. You must have seen that all the patent prosecution process are legally complex and require much time and effort from your busy schedule. And a slight of mistake from your end will bring the office action on your patent application. Thus, hiring patent paralegal experts is always useful when it comes to patent prosecution.
Also read: duties of IP paralegal experts.
How Patent Paralegal Force Helps You In Patent Prosecution Process?
As in our name “paralegal”, we at Patent Paralegal Force help you deal with legalities involved to get you the grant of patent on your invention. After hiring us you relax and we carry the burden of documentation work, filing work and giving response to the office actions if any. Having experience of 10+ years in patent prosecution process we have served clients in over 45+ countries.
With the highly skilled members in our team we use state of the art tools to give you best patent prosecution service. We help you with preparing and filing patent application, monitoring the patent after grant, proofreading, end-to-end IDS management, data verification, docketing, etc. Price will never be the barrier between you and us as we charge only for what is legible. We work till you feel satisfied.
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