The answer varies, of course, depending on many factors.

Let’s start with the country. Patents are a per country right. According to the USPTO (US Patent and Trademark Office), it takes about 24 months to get a patent approval after filing your patent application. A fast track examination might lead to approval in six to 12 months, but you have to qualify.

However, the length of time to get a patent in the US varies according to the technical area. For example, most software applications fall in a technical area that averages up to 37 months to get a patent.

According to other sources, approval length could be up to 37 months in Canada, 3 years in China, and 5 years in Europe. But it currently takes up to 14 years in Brazil(!).

But you also have to include the time to do a patent search and draft the patent application.

The patent process timeline:

• Patent searching (1 week to 6 months)

• Drafting the patent application (2 to 4 weeks)

• File to acceptance (see above for per country timing)

These are average wait lengths. The invention's complexity and who it is assigned to determine the length of patent approval or rejection. Depending on the patent office’s queue, this could mean shorter or longer wait time.

If you have additional questions regarding the length of the patent process or need help, contact us here.

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