1. Utility Patent

The invention or creation that applies for a functional patent must have certain functions or practical value. The protection period of an invention patent is twenty years from the date of application, three and a half years from the date of registration, seven and a half years, and eleven and a half years, respectively. Maintenance fees need to be paid three times in total. Direct review is required, and after approval, a registration certificate will be issued and announced simultaneously.

2. Design patent

The invention or creation for which a design patent is applied must be innovative and have a decorative or beautifying effect on the product that is unique to the product, (Ornamented or Aesthetic in Nature), But it doesn't necessarily have to be practical. The protection period is fourteen years from the registration date, and no annual fee is required.

3. Plant Patent

The invention or creation for applying for a plant patent must have undergone asexual reproduction or sexual reproduction cultivation, and possess novelty and specificity. A single plant can only have one patent.

4. Provisional Application:

It is a record document that establishes the "US Patent Application Date" and is valid for 12 months. As it is only a record document, a provisional application is not a true patent application. Apart from not claiming priority in other cases, the US Patent Office will not review or grant a provisional patent to the application.

5. Continuous application cases

Based on the original application as the parent case, an application filed to modify the scope of patent protection without modifying the substantive content of the invention should usually be approved after the final rejection and approval, and before the original application is abandoned, the patent claims should be amended without modifying the patent statement, and the application date of the original case should be retained.

6. Partial application cases

When new substantive content needs to be added to the original application, it should be based on the original application. Before the original application is abandoned, a partial continuous application can be applied for. For the same part as the original application, the application date is the same as the original application. The newly added part is the application date of the new continuous application.