Three major ‘remedial’ systems taken from the PCT Regulations have been introduced in the third revision of the Implementation Regulations of the Chinese Patent Law in 2023 (hereinafter referred to as the “Implementation Regulations”). We previously discussed one of these remedial systems, Incorporation by Reference based on Rule 45 of the Implementation Regulations, which allows an applicant to rectify missing documents or parts of the document two months from the filing date. In this article we will be focusing on the other two new systems—the restoration of the right of priority and the addition or correction of a priority claim, namely new Rules 36, 37 and 128. Prior to the…
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New Remedy in China for Fixing “Errors” in a Patent Application: Incorporation by Reference
Background As mentioned in our earlier article, the Implementation Regulations of the Chinese Patent Law (“Regulations”, similar to the CFR in the US) were approved in November, and the CNIPA finally made public the full text of the Regulations just before the arrival of the New Year. At the same time, the CNIPA also released the new Patent Examination Guidelines (“Guidelines”, like the MPEP in the US), along with specific implementation dates and transitional methods. These changes became effective as of 20 January 2024. Today’s article will focus on incorporation by reference. The Regulations provide more details on the newly “incorporation by reference” provision in the Chinese Patent Law, which align this…
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Updates on Hong Kong Patents Examination Guidelines in 2024
The Intellectual Property Department of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (HKIPD) has recently made several updates to the Hong Kong Patents Examination Guidelines, effective from 26 January, 2024. These changes mainly clarify and reflect the Registry’s current practices regarding patent examination for Standard Patent (R) Applications, Standard Patent (O) Applications (i.e., Original Grant Patents (OGP)), and Short-Term Patent Applications. We briefly summarize the key revisions below: Section 1: Novelty – This section only made a minor textual revision to correct a typographical error to refer to the correct section (from section 1.61 to 1.62) in 1.61. The change made is…
