Patent application
A patent application is a request pending at a patent office for the grant of a patent for an invention described in the patent specification and a set of one or more claims stated in a formal document, including necessary official forms and related correspondence. It is the combination of the document and its processing within the administrative and legal framework of the patent office.
To obtain the grant of a patent, a person, either legal or natural, must file an application at a patent office with the jurisdiction to grant a patent in the geographic area over which coverage is required. This is often a national patent office, but may be a regional body, such as the European Patent Office. Once the patent specification complies with the laws of the office concerned, a patent may be granted for the invention described and claimed by the specification.
The process of "negotiating" or "arguing" with a patent office for the grant of a patent, and interaction with a patent office with regard to a patent after its grant, is known as patent prosecution. Patent prosecution is distinct from patent litigation which relates to legal proceedings for infringement of a patent after it is granted.
Definition
The term patent application refers to the legal and administrative proceedings of requesting the issuance of a patent for an invention, as well as to the physical document and content of the description and claims of the invention, including its procedural paper work.The first of those—the request for a legal privilege to which the applicant is entitled if the application is well founded—is temporal by its nature. It ceases to exist as soon as the application is withdrawn or refused, or a patent is granted. The informational content of the document as filed, is a historical fact that persists and exists in perpetuity. The expression "application" is often employed without being conscious of its ambiguity. The expression is capable of misleading even experienced professionals.
Geographic scope
Depending upon the office at which a patent application is filed, that application could either be an application for a patent in a given country, or may be an application for a patent in a range of countries. The former are known as "national applications", and the latter as "regional applications".National applications
National applications are generally filed at a national patent office, such as the United Kingdom Patent Office, to obtain a patent in the country of that office. The application may either be filed directly at that office, or may result from a regional application or from an international application under the Patent Cooperation Treaty, once it enters the national phase.Regional applications
A regional patent application is one which may have effect in a range of countries. The European Patent Office is an example of a regional patent office. The EPO grants patents which can take effect in some or all countries contracting to the European Patent Convention, following a single application process. Other examples of regional patent offices are for example the Eurasian Patent Organization, the African Intellectual Property Organization and the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization.Filing and prosecuting an application at a regional granting office is advantageous as it allows patents in a number of countries to be obtained without having to prosecute applications in all of those countries. The cost and complexity of obtaining protection is therefore reduced.
International applications
The Patent Cooperation Treaty is operated by World Intellectual Property Organization and provides a centralised application process, but patents are not granted under the treaty.Image:PCT Patent Procedure.jpg|thumb|320px|Exemplary PCT procedure, with a U.S. provisional application as a first filing
The PCT system enables an applicant to file a single patent application in a single language. The application, called an international application, can, at a later date, lead to the grant of a patent in any of the states contracting to the PCT. WIPO, or more precisely the International Bureau of WIPO, performs many of the formalities of a patent application in a centralised manner, therefore avoiding the need to repeat the steps in all countries in which a patent may ultimately be granted. The WIPO coordinates searches performed by any one of the International Searching Authorities, publishes the international applications and coordinates preliminary examination performed by any one of the International Preliminary Examination Authorities. Steps such as naming inventors and applicants, and filing certified copies of priority documents can also be done centrally, and need not be repeated.
The main advantage of proceeding via the PCT route is that the option of obtaining patents in a wide range of countries is retained, while the cost of a large number of applications is deferred. In most countries, if a national application succeeds, damages can be claimed from the date of the international application's publication.
Types
Patent offices may define a number of types of applications, each offering different benefits and being useful in different situations. Each office utilizes different names for the types of applications, but the general groups are detailed below. Within each group there are specific type of applications, such as patents for inventions, plant patents, and design patents, each of which can have their own substantive and procedural rules.Standard application
A [|standard patent application] is a patent application containing all of the necessary parts that are required for the grant of a patent. A standard patent application may or may not result in the grant of a patent depending upon the outcome of an examination by the patent office it is filed in. In the U.S., a standard patent application is referred to as a "non-provisional" application.Provisional application
s can be filed with a small number of patent offices, particularly with the USPTO. In order for a US provisional application to establish a priority date for a future full standard patent application, the disclosure in the provisional must be enabling. Claims are not required in a provisional application, although it is advised to have them, since claims may contribute to enabling disclosure.The disclosure in a provisional application may, within a limited time, be incorporated into a standard patent application, if a patent is to be pursued. Otherwise, the provisional application expires, does not get published, and does not become a prior art to other patent applications. No enforceable rights can be obtained solely through the filing of a provisional application. Full application may have additional information added, and for the purposed of prior art analysis, the non-provisional application will have two priority dates.
Continuation application
In certain offices a patent application can be filed as a continuation of a previous application. Such an application is a convenient method of including material from a previous application in a new application when the priority year has expired and further refinement is needed. Various types of continuation application are possible, such as continuation and continuation-in-part.Divisional application
A divisional patent application is one which has been "divided" from an existing application. A divisional application can only contain subject matter in the application from which it is divided, and retains the filing and priority date of the parent. Divisional applications are useful if a unity of invention objection is issued, in which case further inventions can be protected in divisional applications.Preparation, filing, and prosecution
The process of obtaining the grant of a patent begins with the preparation of a specification describing the invention. That specification is filed at a patent office for examination and ultimately a patent for the invention described in the application is either granted or refused.Patent specification
A patent specification is a document describing the invention for which a patent is sought and setting out the scope of the protection of the patent. As such, a specification generally contains a section detailing the background and overview of the invention, a description of the invention and embodiments of the invention and claims, which set out the scope of the protection. A specification may include figures to aid the description of the invention, gene sequences and references to biological deposits, or computer code, depending upon the subject matter of the application. Most patent offices also require that the application includes an abstract which provides a summary of the invention to aid searching. A title must also generally be provided for the application.Each patent office has rules relating to the form of the specification, defining such things as paper size, font, layout, section ordering and headings. Such requirements vary between offices.
Since a description cannot generally be modified once it is filed, it is important to have it done correctly the first time.
The patent application generally contains a description of the invention and at least one claim purporting to define it. A patent application may also include drawings to illustrate the invention. In general, the drawings must be in black and white and be without colorings. Furthermore, an abstract is generally required.
For example, an international application "must contain the following elements: request, description, claim or claims, one or more drawings, and abstract." specifies what the description of an international application should contain in more details.
As another example, a European patent application consists of "a request for the grant of a European patent, a description of the invention, one or more claims, any drawings referred to in the description or claims, and an abstract." specifies what the description of a European patent application should contain in more details.