What is a Notice of Allowance Patent?
Patents give inventors the exclusive right to make, use or sell their invention for 20 years after the patent is approved. When the U.S. Patent Office issues a notice of allowance for a patent, it means that the government has decided your patent is a genuinely new invention and intends to grants you a patent.
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Patent Applications
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Patentapplications.net says that applications to the Patent Office have three parts: A detailed description of the invention; the "claims," which spell out the legal definition of the patent; and a drawing showing the invention. The description must have enough detailed information that the Patent Office can decide if it's truly a new invention or not. You'll also have to pay the office an application fee, a fee to issue the patent if it's approved and three maintenance fees over the life of the patent. It will add up to well over a thousand dollars, with the application fee alone costing $500, even if your patent gets rejected.
Rejection
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When you submit your application to the Patent Office, their staffers will examine the request, determining whether it's distinctive enough to deserve a patent. If they find an earlier patent that matches the claims you made, or a primary and secondary patent that, combined, duplicate your idea, then the application can be rejected.
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Notice of Allowance
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If the Patent Office decides your invention is genuinely new and you're therefore entitled to a patent under the law, they'll send you a notice of allowance. The notice will specify how much the issue fee will be; if you don't pay within 3 months--no extension allowed--your application will be voided. If the Patent Office intends to publish your patent application, something that happens within 18 months of applying unless you fall under the exceptions in federal regulations, the notice of allowance will also tell you the publication fee, which must also be paid within 3 months, no extensions.
Notice of Allowance Paperwork
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The Notice of Allowance form (officially PTOL-85) is three pages long; part B must be returned with your issue fee. Page three includes information about patent-term adjustments, which adjust the term of your patent under certain circumstances; for example, if the Patent Office delays issuing your patent.
Issuing the Patent
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Once you've received your notice of allowance and paid your issue fee, the Patent Office should issue your patent within a few months. At this point, you've probably completed the journey; patentapplications.net says patents are sometimes challenged in court after they're issued, but that usually only happens in battles between large corporations.
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