A stepbystep overview of a patent application and maintenance process. The five stages of a patent process.As a rule of thumb, United States patent applications filed after March 16, 2013 are subject to a rule commonly referred to as "first inventor to file." This tutorial will focus on patents and the process for securing a patent in the U.S. First, let's consider why we have a patent system? This invention relates to a novel method for converting one or more steel shipping containers to a habitable building. Thus, US patent applications must list the "true and.