A patent application may be filed by the inventor (or any of the co-inventors), or a legal representative, who may be an appointed agent or a person to whom rights to the invention were formally transferred by the inventor(s). Both applicant name and the name of the true inventor(s) are entered in the application.
Documents
A patent application comprises several documents, and certain forms, as described below:
Petition: a formal request for a patent, available as a printed or as part of the online application, comprising personal information about the inventor(s), assignment of an agent/representative, indication of a previous foreign or international filing date, and an optional declaration of “small-entity” fee-level entitlement;
Abstract: a brief synopsis of the invention and its use;
Description: a statement of the field of the invention, a survey of its technical background and existing solutions, a summary of the distinct features the invention possesses, a listing of the accompanying drawings, and a comprehensive, detailed technical disclosure of the various features of the invention;
Claims: succinct, precise statements of features taught by the invention;
Drawings: clear illustrations and annotations in a prescribed format, which must correspond to the provided description;
Fees: application fees must be submitted with the application, and may be remitted online or mailed to the Patent Office with the proper form.
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The description and claims are collectively called the “specification”. A patent application must exhibit integrity and congruence: features claimed must be supported in the description and drawings, and components appearing in different drawings must be labeled identically.
Filing date
Establishing a filing date as early as possible is critical in situations where a competing development of an invention is believed to exist, or if publication or public disclosure of the invention is suspected to be imminent. Once an application is filed, subsequent applications for the same invention by other inventors (in that country) will be rejected, and publications or public disclosures of the invention will not affect it.
Ideally, an application should be completed properly before it is filed; but if the situation is such that it is imperative to establish a filing date with a minimal delay, a skeletal, incomplete application may be filed, and then completed at a later time. To establish a filing date an application must contain the following:
- an indication that a patent is sought;
- name and address of the applicant or representative;
- a description of the invention;
- an application fee.
To complete the application a petition must be submitted, along with the remainder of the documents as listed in the ‘documents’ section above. If an application is completed within fifteen months of its filing date, no fee is levied. If an application remains incomplete at the expiry of this period, a Commissioner’s Notice is sent requisitioning the applicant to complete the application within three months, and remit the prescribed completion fee to avoid abandonment. For more information you could read patent my invention through InventHelp article.
