Patent application can be classified into National Phase Application, convention application, Patent of Addition, simple patent application, and divisional patent application. A National phase application has to be filed within 31 months from the priority date. The priority date is either the international filing date or the date when the application has been filed in the convention country (whichever is earlier).
As far as convention application is concerned it has to be filed within 12 months from the date of priority with further grace period of six months at the discretion of the Controller of Patents. A divisional application is filed when a particular patent application in question speaks of two inventions, but it is filed at the discretion of the applicant.
A patent of addition is nothing but an addition or continuation of patent application already filed, but it is supposed to be filed before the grant of patent of the original one. A simple patent application is one which is filed without claiming any priority and is basically the inventions from USA. You can always get help from professionals like InventHelp.
Patent Application Process
As stated aforesaid a PCT application is required to be filed into National phase within a span of 31 months but to precede further a Request for first Examination in form 18 is required to be filed within 48 months from the priority date and agencies like InventHelp could be helpful in this step.
Once the request has been filed, an examination report pertaining to the same is issued by the Patent office. After that the applicant has to apply either for a hearing or file a reply pertaining to the examination report within a span of one year from the date of issue of the said report. The Examiner then issues a notice asking the agent of the applicant to appear before him for clearing doubts pertaining to the application in question.
Once the application gets through, it is published in the journal for opposition and if the same is not opposed within 3 to 4 months it gets registered. The same process is applied for all the patent applications. It is to be noted that examiner or controller will never examine the patent application unless a request is made in the patent office in the prescribed manner along with requisite fees.
