Patent application

The informational content of the document as filed (or in other, prosaic words, the piece of paper), is a historical fact that persists and exists in perpetuity.

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.

[6] Patent offices may define a number of types of applications, each offering different benefits and being useful in different situations.

The process of obtaining the grant of a patent begins with the preparation of a specification describing the invention.

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.

[7] Each patent office has rules relating to the form of the specification, defining such things as paper size, font, layout, section ordering and headings.

The patent application generally contains a description of the invention and at least one claim purporting to define it.

"[10] Rule 42 EPC specifies what the description of a European patent application should contain in more details.

In the U.S., claims can be amended after a patent is granted, but their scope cannot be broadened beyond what was originally disclosed in the specification.

If the requirements for the award of a filing date are not met, the patent office notifies the applicant of the deficiencies.

For countries that have acceded to the Patent Law Treaty (PLT), the PLT requires that the office of any Contracting Party must accord a filing date to an application upon compliance with three simple formal requirements: first, an indication that the elements received by the office are intended to be an application for a patent for an invention; second, indications that would allow the office to identify or to contact the applicant (however, a Contracting Party is allowed to require indications on both); third, a part which appears to be a description of the invention.

[13] Claiming priority is desirable because the earlier effective filing date reduces the number of prior art disclosures, increasing the likelihood of obtaining a patent.

Such clearance is intended to protect national security by preventing the spread and publication of technologies related to (amongst others) warfare or nuclear arms.

The rules vary between patent offices, but in general all applications filed are reviewed and if they contain any relevant material, a secrecy order may be imposed.

That order may prevent the publication of the application, and/or the foreign filing of patents relating to the invention.

For example, in Europe, things such as computer software or methods of performing mental acts are not patentable.

The search report is also useful for the public and the competitors, so that they may have an idea of the scope of protection which may be granted to the pending patent application.

Examination is the process of ensuring that an application complies with the requirements of the relevant patent laws.

The amendment and the argument may then be accepted or rejected, triggering further response, and so forth, until a patent is issued or the application is abandoned or refused.

Many jurisdictions require periodic payment of maintenance fees to retain the validity of a patent after it is issued and during its term.

In principle, anyone who exploits a patented invention without the patentee's authorization commits an illegal act.

Patentees may give permission, or grant a license, to other parties to use their inventions on mutually agreed terms.

[17] These exceptions take into account the balance between the legitimate interests of the patent holder and those of competitors, consumers and others.

[18] Note: World totals are WIPO estimates using data covering 161 patent offices.

Due to this break in the data series, and to the high number of filings in China, it is not possible to report an accurate 2017 growth rate at world level.

It provides a unified procedure for filing patent applications to protect inventions in each of its contracting states.

Within the top 20 origins, Spain (27.2%), China (22.4%) and the Republic of Korea (20.5%) had the largest proportion of inventors who were women in 2020.

Fields of technology related to the life sciences had comparatively high shares of PCT applications with women inventors in 2020.