After Filing A Patent Application, What Else Should I Expect?

So after filing a patent application law, what can you expect next from the US Patent Office? Learn more about informality, restriction, refusal, and permission as you continue reading.

What happens when you submit a non-provisional patent application is the central point of this article. It does not apply to applications for provisional patents. See our other articles on provisional vs non-patent applications to gain a deeper understanding of the differences between the two.

Following the filing of your non-provisional patent application, the US Patent and Trademark Office may send you one of the following notices: (USPTO). An office action means when the USPTO receives any notification.

Informality

When there is an issue with how the application was filed, it is considered an informality. Maybe some of the documentation is incomplete, or you did not complete it correctly, or you didn’t pay the required payments. Or the details of how your idea functions have not yet been analyzed by the USPTO. On initial inspection, there are some problems with the application. We almost always fix the problems raised by the USPTO while permitting you to maintain the application’s starting date. A USPTO patent examiner will then wait in line to look at or analyze the patent application.

Restriction

When a USPTO patent examiner considers that your patent application contains more than one idea, that time a restriction arises. Usually, it is if your creation has two distinct forms. For example, consider a computer mouse with two or three buttons. The examiner only wants to look at one of these two versions of the invention. You must choose one to identify which version you want the examiner to analyze.

Rejection

A rejection happens due to various reasons. If the examiner feels your invention is too equal to one that already exists, they will most likely reject it. Getting a rejection does not necessarily indicate that the patent application was written wrong. This only suggests that, in the examiner’s judgment, your innovation is not completely different from certain existing inventions. It is the examiner’s duty to reject applications. Hence it happens frequently.

In reaction to rejection, we can explain to the examiner why we believe your creation is unique enough to not be extremely similar to already-existing ideas and why we believe you should be allowed a patent. Before your application may be granted, there may be several rejection-and-response interactions with the examiner.

Allowance

When the patent examiner proves that your invention fulfils the patentability requirements of being original, non-obvious, and useful, approval is given.

The last step before receiving a patent is this. After paying the publication cost, your patent will be approved and start to be valid.

If the USPTO gives you notice, it definitely has a deadline. To keep your patent application active, be sure to reply as soon as possible. Please feel free to get in touch with us to discuss any USPTO alerts you may have and what needs to be done.