Amended “Guidelines for Patent Examination”will take effect on April 1st

3-29-2017

Amendments

Regarding amendment of Part II Chapter 1 (Inventions-Creations for Which No Patent Right shall be Granted)

Amended Article

After modified: Claims relate to a business model, if it contains both the contents of the business rules and methods, but also the technical features, should not be excluded the possibility of obtaining a patent based on Article 25 of the Patent Law. (4.2)

Regarding modification of Chapter 9 of Part II (Provisions on Examination of Invention Applications Relating to Computer Programs)

Amendment #1

The amended guidelines further define the "computer program ITSELF" differs from " computer programs related invention ", allowing the use of "media + computer program process" method when drafting a claim.

Amendment #2

In the first paragraph of section 5.2 in the amended guidelines, the content, "And describe in detail what components of the computer program are completed and how to accomplish these functions" is deleted and the content, “the component not only includes hardware, but also includes program ", which clarifies that “program” may be used as a part of a device claim. In addition, the "device for performing the method" in the first paragraph is adaptively amended to "for example, device for performing the method ".

Amendment #3

“Function Module” in section 5.2 second paragraph amended to “Program Module” (5.2)

Also, example 9 in paragraph 3 which has no teaching purposes anymore is deleted.

Regarding amendement of Chapter 10 of Part II ( Provisions on Examination of Invention Applications in the Field of Chemistry)

Amendment

In the section 3.5 of amended guidelines, the content, “relate to late submit of experimental data” is added and the content in section 3.4 (2) relating to late submission of experimental data to section 3.5 is moved to section 3.5, and “Embodiment and experimental data submitted after the filing date are not taken into account” is amended to “The examiner shall review the experimental data submitted after the filing date. The technical effect demonstrated by the experimental data should be obtained by the person skilled in the art from the disclosure of the patent application”

Regarding amendment of Chapter 3 of Part IV (Examination of Invalidation case)

Amendment #1

It is allowed to incorporate one or more of the technical features described in the other claims into the claims to narrow the protection scope of claims, and the obvious mistakes in the claims are allowed to be corrected. (4.2, 4.6.2, and 4.6.3)

Amendment #2

The amended guidelines clarify that if the patentee adds grounds by amending the claims in a manner other than deletion, the grounds added should only refer to “amended content”. (4.2)

The content, “the petitioner is required to supplement evidences within in a designated term, in the case that the patentee amends the claims by merging” in the original guidelines is deleted, which avoids irrational extension of the invalidation procedure. (Chapter 4.3.1)

Regarding amendment of Chapter 4 of Part V (Patent Application Documents)

Amendment

In chapter 5.2 of amended guidelines, for the application that is published but not granted, the scope of content that is able to be accessed and reproduced expends to the substantive examination procedure. The content includes official notification, search report and decision issued to the applicant. In (3), in the case of a patent application that has been granted, the "priority document" , and the "search report" issued by the Patent Office are allowed to be accessed and reproduced, and the word "text" in the "reply text" of the applicant or the relevant party's reply to the notice shall be deleted from the scope of the reply extended to amended document and so on. In addition, as defined in Section 5.1, "Principles for Access to and Reproduction", the criteria for judging whether access and reproduction are permitted, it is possible to determine whether the document is permitted for access and reproduction, and therefore, delete paragraph 5.2 (5): “in addition to the above, other documents may not be reviewed or copied.”

Regarding modification of Part V Chapter 7

 (Time Limit, Restoration of Right,Suspension of Procedure)

Amendment

In the amended guidelines, it further clarifies that where the people 's court requires the Patent Office to assist in the implementation of the property preservation and the execution of the suspension procedure, the Patent Office shall suspend the relevant procedures in accordance with the period of property preservation prescribed in the civil ruling and the notice of implementation. After the expiration of the time limit, the people' s court shall continue to take property preservation measures and shall be send to the Patent Office before the expiry of the time limit, and shall be renewed upon approval of the prescribed and suspended period of time. At the same time, the suspension period required for invalidation procedure and waiting for preservation shall be amended adaptively (7.4.2, 7.4.3, 7.5.2)

 

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