There is no doubt that the drafting quality of a patent can be crucial in determining the success (or failure!) of the patent during litigation. However, due to various reasons, patents often fail to use the right drafting strategies that best protect the invention. Too often, inexperienced or unsophisticated patent drafters merely listen to an inventor and literally describe the features of an invention. Worst yet, some inventors try to draft their own application, making the similar mistake of describing an invention too specifically and narrowly, leaving plenty of “design-around” space. Even though a patent may grant, the protection scope for that invention is weak, at best, and may even…
- China, Court Cases, Courts, Drafting, Inventions, Patent Law, Patent Re-examination Board, Quality, Supreme People's Court
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China Announcing More Proposed Amendments to the Examination Guidelines in 2022
It’s been a year and a half since the new Chinese Patent Law came into effect (1 June 2021). Although various versions of draft Examination Guidelines have been released, thus far no official finalized versions have been confirmed. On October 31, 2022, yet another new list of proposed amendments was published[1], this time consolidating the previous sets of proposed changes from 2020 to 2021 to the Examination Guidelines. As this version looks closer to a finalized version, we are cautiously optimistic that an official set of guidelines may soon be released. As such, we think it’s worth looking a bit more closely into this current draft version. Below are a…
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US vs CN: Foreign Filing License Requirements
In China, foreign filing requirements are generally very similar to the US — a foreign filing license is required if a foreign application is to be filed first for an invention made in the country. The Chinese equivalent to the US foreign filing license is called a confidentiality examination for foreign filing. According to Chinese Patent Law Article 19 (previously Article 20), if a foreign application is to be filed for an invention made in China, the applicant must submit a request to conduct a confidentiality exam to the CNIPA in advance. The CNIPA will determine whether the invention (for simplicity, the term “invention” includes invention and utility models in…