The steps involved in applying for a patent are as follows:
1. Consult your patent attorneys and discuss your invention with them. We at Lehman Lee & Xu will advise on the information we will need from you and the chances of obtaining a patent registration in your countries of choice.
2. Where necessary, we will conduct a search on your behalf and report the results to you with our advice as to whether or not you are likely to obtain a patent registration in light of the documents uncovered in the search.
3. Once all the required information has been provided, we will then draft a patent "specification" for you, which will include a detailed description. Quite often we will ask questions and request more information during the drafting process to be sure that the patent specification adequately protects your invention.
4. Once the specification has been completed and approved by you, we will then file the patent application with the Chinese Patent Office, along with the relevant application forms.
5. The Chinese Patent Office will usually conduct their own search of their patent databases and will report the results to us. We will then advise you as to whether or not your specification might require amendment as well as your chances of obtaining a valid patent.
6. The Chinese Patent Office will conduct an examination of your patent application to determine whether or not it meets the requirements set down by the Chinese patent laws. If the Patent Office has any problems with your application, it will liaise with us. We will then discuss the problems and our solutions with you.
7. Providing all problems with the application have been overcome, a patent registration certificate will be issued and you will have a granted patent.
