Patent ApplicationFiling and prosecuting an application at a regional granting office is advantageous as it allows patents in a number of countries to be obtained without having to prosecute applications in all of those countries. The European Patent Office (EPO) is an example of a Regional patent office. The cost and complexity of obtaining protection is therefore reduced. A regional patent application is one which may have effect in a range of countries. The EPO grants patents which can take effect in some or all countries contracting to the European Patent Convention (EPC), following a single application process. The process of "negotiating" or "arguing" with a patent office for the grant of a patent, and interaction with a patent office with regard to a patent after its grant, is known as patent prosecution. In order to obtain the grant of a patent, a person, either legal or natural, must file an application at a patent office with jurisdiction to grant a patent in the geographic area over which coverage is required. This will often be a national patent office, such as the United Kingdom Patent Office or the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), but could be a regional body, such as the European Patent office. Once the patent specification complies with the laws of the office concerned, a patent may be granted for the invention described and claimed by the specification. Patent prosecution is distinct from patent litigation which relates to legal proceedings for infringement of a patent after it is granted. A standard patent application is a patent application containing all of the necessary parts (e.g. a written description of the invention and claims) that are required for the grant of a patent. A standard patent may or may not result in the grant of a patent depending upon the outcome of an examination by the patent office it is filed in. An application consists of a description of the invention (the patent specification), together with official forms and correspondence relating to the application. A patent application is a request pending at a patent office for the grant of a patent for the invention described and claimed by that application. The term patent application is also used to refer to the process of applying for a patent, or to the patent specification itself. The application may either be filed directly at that office, or may result from a regional application or from an international application under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), once it enters the national phase. National applications are generally filed at a national patent office, such as the United Kingdom Patent Office, to obtain a patent in the country of that office. A divisional application is one which has been "divided" from an existing application. A divisional application is useful if a unity of invention objection is issued, in which case the second (and third, fourth, etc) inventions can be protected in divisional applications. A divisional application can only contain subject matter in the application from which it is divided (its parent), but retains the filing and priority date of that parent. Otherwise, the provisional application expires. A provisional application provides the opportunity to place an application on file to obtain a filing date, but without the expense and complexity of a standard patent application. The disclosure in a provisional application may, within a limited time (one year in the US), be incorporated into a standard patent application if a patent is to be pursued. Provisional patent applications can be filed at many patent offices. No enforceable rights can be obtained solely through the filing of a provisional application. | |
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