When a complete design patent application, along with the appropriate filing fee, is received by the Patent and Trademark Office, it is assigned an Application Number and a Filing Date. A Filing Receipt containing this information is sent to the applicant. The application is then assigned to an examiner. Applications are examined in order of their filing date. The actual examination entails checking for compliance with formalities, ensuring completeness of the drawing disclosure, and a comparison of the claimed subject matter with the prior art .
Prior art consists of issued patents and published materials.
If the claimed subject matter is found to be patentable, the application will be allowed and instructions will be provided to applicant for completing the process to permit issuance as a patent. The examiner may reject the claim in the application if the disclosure cannot be understood or is incomplete, or if a reference or combination of references, found in the prior art, shows the claimed design to be unpatentable. The examiner will then issue an Office action detailing the rejection and addressing the substantive matters which effect patentability. This Office Action may also contain suggestions by the examiner for amendments to the application. Applicant should keep this Office action for his or her files, and not send it back to the Office.