Amended Patent Act Enforced.　More Attention Shall Be Paid to the Quality of Specification of Utility Model Patents Application.

The amended Patent Act promulgated on February 6, 2003 was enforced on July 1, 2004. The most revolutionary change contained in this amendment is the adoption of “formality examination” in utility model patents examination. The public hearing in regard to “formality examination criteria”, which decide the utility model patents examination result, is completed right before enforcement of the amended Patent Act, and the essential matters of such public hearing are briefed as follows:

 

1.      The purpose of “formality examination” is to make patent granting effectively; Intellectual Property Office (IPO) estimates that a written decision of “formality examination” can be made within 6 months after the filing date.

2.      The objects of utility model patents include the form, construction, and installation of an article, which are the same with those of the pre-amended Act but with the inserted items of circuit construction and layer construction in the said criteria.

3.      Formality examination and substantive examination of invention patents substantially differ in the way that formality examination does not search for previous applications nor examine whether or not a new application meets patent requirements. Also, formality examination is different from procedural examination, which focuses on whether documents for application examination are duly complete and whether the form format submitted comply with regulations, etc..

4.      Formality examination aims to examine: whether the content claimed in a patent application is indeed a utility model; whether such utility model is detrimental to public order and good customs; whether the specification of a patent application discloses the name, abstract, specification, and claim of the utility model; whether the specification violates the regulations specified in enforcement rules; whether a utility model application violates the unity principle; and whether certain essential matters have not been disclosed in the specification or drawings, or the essential matters disclosed therein are obviously unclear.

5.      A utility model application shall contain a drawing that discloses the content of this application; this drawing shall not be a construction drawing, pictures, or a flow chart only. (2004.7)

CYJ/CCS