From Idea to Grant 104/ How to get a grant for an application

To get a patent, a legal or natural person must file an application with a patent office that has jurisdiction to grant a patent in the geographic area where coverage is necessary. It's usually a national patent office, but it could also be a regional organization like the European Patent Office. A patent may be granted for the invention disclosed and claimed in the patent specification if it complies with the laws of the office concerned.

Patent prosecution is the process of "negotiating" or "arguing" with a patent office for the grant of a patent, as well as engagement with a patent office after the patent has been granted. Patent prosecution is separate from patent litigation, which involves legal action for patent infringement after the patent has been granted. If you go step by step, the following order can be followed as can be viewed in Figure 1.

Figure 1

Step#1 Application

Applicants select a submission category (national, regional, or international) and then submit an application. According to the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, the initial file is regarded the "priority filing" from which further national, regional, or worldwide filings may be made within a one-year "priority period."

Step#2 Formal Examination

All administrative formalities are satisfied, appropriate material is included in the application, and all associated fees are paid, according to the patent office.

Step#3 Prior Art Search

In many countries, the patent office conducts a prior art search, which includes all relevant technological knowledge that was publicly available at the time the application was filed. A 'search report' is written that compares the technical merits of the claimed invention with those of the available prior art, using comprehensive databases and expert examiners in the specific technical field of the application.

Step#4 Publication

In most countries, the patent application is published 18 months after the priority date, that is, 18 months after the original filing date.

Step#5 Substantive Examination

If a prior art search report is provided, the examiner compares the application to the prior art listed in the search report to see if it meets the patentability conditions - that the invention is novel, inventive, and susceptible to industrial application.

Step#6 Grant/Refusal

The examiner can either grant the patent application without amendments, adjust the scope of the claims to reflect known prior art, or reject it.

Step#7 Opposition

Many patent offices allow third parties to file an opposition to a granted invention within a certain time frame if they believe it does not meet patentability requirements.

Step#8 Appeal

After the substantive examination or after the opposition procedure, several offices provide for an appeal.

References:

TURKPATENT Patent/Faydalı Model Kılavuzu

WIPO Manuals

https://www.irena.org/inspire/Intellectual-Property-Rights/Patent-Granting-Procedure

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_application