The benefits of applying for invention and utility model patents at the same time, Quanzhou Specialist Application

1. Extend the time for voluntary division of cases.
In the same application document, the inventor may propose multiple technical solutions for the technical problem to be solved. When the technical solution written in the claims is not unique, the examiner will issue an examination opinion requesting division of the case. In addition, if the number of claims exceeds ten, the excess fee for each item will be increased. There are also some technical solutions that are obviously not unitary. For the sake of application fees, the applicant can add these non-unitary items to the application fee. The technical solution is written in the manual.
2. There is no need to rush to authorize the invention. You can make more replies to strive for a wider scope of protection.
There are usually some unreasonable things in the invention review opinions sent. First, the examiner’s understanding of the technical solution is incorrect. Second, the examiner will use hindsight and think that there is no inventive step. If there is no utility model application at the same time, the applicant will respond by agreeing to the examination opinion, making concessions in a timely manner, and amending the claims because it hopes to obtain authorization as soon as possible. In this case, many opportunities to argue with the examiner will be lost, and much of the scope of patent protection that could have been obtained would be lost.
3. Authorization of an invention does not necessarily require giving up the utility model.
Since there are excess fees for claims, when applying for invention and utility model at the same time, you can consider writing different contents in the claims of the two. Technical solutions that use more existing technologies should be written in the utility model application documents, and more forward-looking technical solutions should be written in the invention application documents. Although such two applications originate from the same invention, they will have different protection scopes due to differences in technical solutions. In other words, they are not the same invention as mentioned in the patent law. The rights of the author can exist at the same time.
4. Patent protection period is longer.
If you only apply for a utility model, the patent right can only start from the date of grant and end in the tenth year after the date of application. If an invention and utility model are applied for at the same time, the protection period can be extended to twenty years after the filing date.

5. If the invention is used during the disclosure stage before authorization, the utility model patent rights can also be entered and exited for patent rights protection, allowing the infringing party to pay compensation, not just the technology royalties for the disclosed state of the invention.

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