As the most important bilateral economic and trade relationship in the world, the Sino-US economic and trade relationship has always influenced the overall situation of global economic and trade relations. U.S. investment in China covers almost all areas of the industry, with a total of more than 20,000 joint ventures or sole proprietorships in China. On the other hand, China's investment in the United States is also increasing day by day, and the American market has become one of the important targets for Chinese enterprises to "go global". Since the restoration of diplomatic relations between China and the United States in 1972, the bilateral trade volume of 12.88 million US dollars has grown to 555.1 billion US dollars in 2014. China and the United States are not only trading partners, but also export markets and import sources. It can be said that in the context of global integration, neither side can completely get rid of the other.
The United States promulgated the world's first patent law and copyright law with modern significance in 1790. It has the most complete intellectual property protection system in the world and ranks first in the global intellectual property protection index. In addition to the protection of intellectual property rights such as patents, trademarks, and new plant varieties that we all know, there are also various judicial means such as 337 investigations, customs protection, and exhibition protection. The United States is the most friendly country to NPE (patent cockroach) in the world. It is almost harsh on copyright protection and places great emphasis on the formulation of intellectual property standardization. Therefore, if Chinese enterprises want to obtain more comprehensive protection in the US market and remain invincible in market competition, they must have a deeper understanding of the US intellectual property protection system.
Today, let's learn about the relevant knowledge of US patents, and hope that everyone can understand the US patent procedure which is quite different from the Chinese patent application procedure.
US patent introduction
1. Types of protection of US patents
The types of protection stipulated in the U.S. patent law include three types: invention, appearance and new plant variety. There is no utility model patent type in China.
2. Paths for Chinese applicants to apply for patents in the United States
Paris Convention, PCT international application into the United States, direct application
3. U.S. Patent Office
The United States Patent and Trademark Office, USPTO, was established in 1802 and is affiliated to the U.S. Department of Commerce. It is mainly responsible for providing patent protection for inventions, trademark registration of goods, and intellectual property certification. USPTO has a total of 12,579 federal employees. It aims to "provide high-quality and fast examination services for patent and trademark applications through a highly skilled and diverse work team, guide the development of domestic and international intellectual property policies, and provide professional intellectual property information and training services to promote domestic and foreign Actively innovate, promote economic development, and enhance competitiveness" is our goal and mission. The U.S. Congress revised the Patent Act in 2011. Since the reform, the USPTO has taken various initiatives and international cooperation to greatly reduce the backlog of applications. Although the number of patent applications has increased by 4% every year, unexamined applications have increased from 750,596 in 2009. Reduced to 652,194 by the end of October 2021, and the average review cycle was shortened to 23.4 months. GlobalDossier, the USPTO's global patent case system, is a must-use system for almost every Chinese patent attorney.
4. Submit your application
1) Application deadline:
- via Paris Convention : within 12 months from the earliest priority date, with an extension of 2 months for justified reasons.
- Entry of PCT international application into the United States: within 30 months from the earliest priority date, with a reasonable extension of 2 months.
2) Language requirements: the application text can be submitted in any language, and the English text should be submitted later.
3) Application method: Various methods such as online application and paper application can be used.
5. Formal examination
An inventor's affidavit or certification must be submitted, signed by all inventors, indicating that they are the inventors of the patent and are responsible for the submitted application documents
6. Information disclosure obligation (IDS)
The patent application procedure unique to the United States requires the patent applicant to actively and timely inform all existing technologies discovered during the period from the submission of the patent application to the granted of the patent.
7. Disclosure procedure
U.S. patent applications for inventions are published 18 months after the earliest priority date/filing date. After the application documents are published, the status of the patent application and various correspondence can be checked on the USPTO website.
8. Substantive examination procedure
The USPTO initiates the substantive examination procedure on its own, without the applicant submitting a separate request for substantive examination. After the substantive examination, the USPTO examiner will directly issue a notice of examination opinion, informing whether the patent application has a prospect of granted, and what problems exist that make the patent application unable to meet the granted conditions. The applicant needs to carefully read the review comments, and submit the defense comments and amendments within the specified time limit.
9. Authorization procedure
After the patent has passed the substantive examination procedure, if the examiner believes that the conditions for granted are met, a letter of granted will be issued. The applicant can only be authorized after paying the granted fee within the specified time limit.
Advantages of U.S. Patents
1. U.S. patents have high gold content. Enterprises applying for U.S. patents for scientific research results will generate huge commercial value and obtain rich profit returns;
2. Owning a US patent is the most effective means to enhance the global competitiveness of an enterprise;
3. Owning a U.S. patent is an important basis for a company to implement a patent strategy, and it can be the best way to occupy the global market;
4. U.S. patents are the best embodiment of an enterprise's innovation capability and core competitiveness, and are of great help to the various qualifications of the enterprise.
Friendliness to Chinese applicants:
★★★★
Gold content of patent rights:
★★★★★
The degree of perfection of the rights protection mechanism:
★★★★★
