In the U.S the application for the patent has to be filed within one year of the first sale or the first exposure of the innovation. The offer for sale usually takes place even before the making of the product, but it’s compulsory that the filing of the application has to be done within the one year stipulated time frame.
Scrutiny of the application
The initial action on the application will take approximately 14 to 24 months from the time of filing the application.
The examiner will put the application under strict scrutiny to clarify whether the application fulfill with the requirements and has authenticity pertaining to the claims. There are chances that the examiner may wave off certain claims in the light of the cited art with substantiating references.
Then the Patent lawyer makes a detailed report as to why the art cited by the examiner fails to meet the claims or why it not standing out from the previous inventions. Such exchanges of opinion between the patent attorney and the examiner are quite common before the issuance of the patent. Once the patent gets a green signal it will be given to the Patent and Trademark Office upon the payment of a fee. The validity of the patent is for twenty years from the date of filing the application only if the owner of the patent is regular in maintaining the fee. Any irregularity in the maintenance will land up in the termination of the patent. The maintenance due comes three and a half, seven and a half and eleven and a half years after the issue date of the patent.
Preparing an application for Patent
The application consists of many parts. In general the application will definitely have a background which places the creation in the context of the previous art. The application will contain a synopsis of the invention with a detailed description of drawings. An explicit description of the innovation should be given, which will enable a person of normal skills in the art to make use of the invention. The application should contain a minimum of one claim which describes the scope of safety sought by the client. An abstract description, throwing light on the subject matter of the innovation and drawings, explaining the invention is the other materials required in the preparation for a patent application.
Patent application in the U.S were filed in the name of the inventors and not their employers before 2012 and it was very much significant to include the names of the participants who were part of the innovation, if it is proved that the inventor is intentionally misguiding the patent can be nullified. So, it is very important to point out the person behind the invention when you prepare an application for the patent. The application for a patent can be filed in the name of the owner also, but the inventors must be identified.
Most countries require absolute uniqueness in the case of a patent; a patent application will not be entertained if there is a public disclosure of the invention. It’s very much compulsory in foreign countries that the application has to be submitted fro approval prior to any public disclosure.