A patent application is a necessary procedure for obtaining patent rights. To obtain a patent right, the applicant shall file an application with the State Patent Office, which shall be approved by the State Patent Office and issue a certificate. When filing a patent application with the national patent authority, the applicant should also submit a series of application documents, such as a request, description, abstract and claims. In terms of patent application, the provisions of patent laws around the world are relatively consistent, but there are also many differences.

A patent application is a request made by an inventor, designer or other subject with the right to apply to the Patent Office to obtain a patent right for an invention or design. According to the Chinese Patent Law, a patent application shall submit an application, description, claims, abstract, drawings and a priority request to the Patent Office. The two documents, the drawings and the priority claim, are not essential for each application, but they are beneficial to the patent application. In the case of a patent application, the application shall be in writing and shall mainly contain the following contents: the request for the grant of the patent, the name of the invention or design, the name and identity of the applicant, the name and identity of the agent, and the signature.

A patent application usually has the following two meanings:

1. Refers to the necessary procedures for obtaining a patent right

For an invention-creation, the applicant must file a patent application with the government department (in China, the State Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China), and the patent right can only be obtained after being examined and approved by the State Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China in accordance with legal procedures. In China, inventions and creations include three types: inventions, utility models and designs.

2. Refers to the status of having applied for a patent but not yet obtained the patent right

For this meaning, it is important to note the difference between the concepts of "patent" and "patent application". In daily life, people sometimes confuse the concepts of "patent" and "patent application". For example, some people claim that they have a patent when their patent application has not been granted. In fact, a patent application can only be called a patent application before it is authorized. If it can finally be authorized, it can be called a patent and has the exclusive right to implement the technical scope it claims to protect. , he will never have the opportunity to become a patent, that is to say, although he has submitted a patent application, he has not obtained the exclusive right to implement the technical scope he claims. Clearly, the gap between the two outcomes represented by these two concepts is enormous.

In the patent application stage, depending on the type of patent, it can be referred to as an invention patent application, a utility model patent application and a design patent application. After the authorization is obtained, they are called invention patents, utility model patents and design patents respectively. At this time, the patent applicant is the patentee of the corresponding patent.