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Filing a Patent Application for a Utility Patent

It can take up 36 months for a patent application to be granted. It's not unusual for a patent application to be rejected the first time, requiring the applicant to amend the claims and appeal. Therefore, it's extremely important that you understand as much as possible about the process.

The description and claims part of the patent application are very important because they tell the patent examiner what you are claiming as your invention. They're also what helps to tell the examiner if your invention is novel, useful nonobvious and patentable.

For more information on understanding utility patent applications, you may find this tutorial very helpful.