By: Michael J Foycik Jr.
May 19, 2013
The author is a patent attorney with over 28 years experience in patents and trademarks. For further information, please email at IP1lwyr@gmail.com, or call at 877-654-3336.
One of the important but little-discussed subjects for inventors is what happens after filing of a Utility Patent Application. Here's a brief guide.
Initially, the US Patent Office studies the application papers for formalities. These formalities include such things as the signed forms, whether the drawings are sufficiently formal, whether specification required information is provided, and so on. If any problems are found, a Notice is sent to the applicant, and a period for response may be set for those problems that can be corrected.
The next stage is the patent examination itself. This is where the patent examiner takes up the application for study. Usually the patent examiner is an expert in the subject matter of the application. The examiner will search the prior patent art, including patent publications, to locate the most relevant references to the invention as described in the claims. The result of this will be a first Office Action, which is usually a statement of objections and rejections, but can sometimes be a first action allowance.
The applicant can respond to the first Office Action, and is normally given a set period of time to do this. The response can include changes to the specification, drawings, and/or claims. Such changes are usually to overcome objections and/or rejections, and to further emphasize the novel features of the invention. Additionally, the applicant can provide remarks in support of patentability.
Of course, many other things might occur beyond those described above. Those are less common, and though important, are not discussed in detail herein for the sake of brevity. A short and incomplete listing is: restriction requirements, election requirements, statutory double patenting rejections, and/or non-statutory subject matter rejections.
Read More >> http://internationalpatentservice.com/What-Happens-After-Filing-a-Utility-Patent-Application.html
