THE DRAFT REVISION OF GUIDELINES FOR PATENT EXAMINATION SEEKING PUBLIC OPINION
发布时间：2016.11.03
The State Intellectual Property Office began to amend the Guidelines for Patent Examination by the end of 2015, and on 27th October 2016, the SIPO announced the Guidelines for Patent Examination Amendment Bill (draft) to solicit public comment. The main points in the amendments are as follows:
(1) Business methods may be included for patent granting
The draft expressly stated that claims relating to business model should not exclude the possibility of being granted for patent rights under Article 25 of Patent Law if it contains both the content of business rules and methods and the technical feature.
(2) Computer program patent
It is further clarified in the draft that “computer programs themselves” is different from “the invention relating to computer programs”. The component parts of claims may include not only hardware but also programs, and amend the term “function model” into “program model”.
(3) Experimental data submitted after the date of filing may be accepted
The draft states that “the experimental data submitted after the date of filing shall be reviewed by the examiner, and the technical effects demonstrated by the experimental data shall be those obtained by the person skilled in the art from the disclosure of the application”.
(4) Invalidation procedure
Where the petitioner raises additional causes for invalidation against claims amended in a manner other than deletion by the patentee, he shall raise additional causes for invalidation against the amendment only. Manners of acceptable amendment are under consideration to include the further limitation of the claims and correction for obvious errors in the claims.
(5) Files relating to the substantive examination may be allowed for consultation and photocopying
For the file of a patent application for invention which has been published and whose grant of patent right has not been published, the scope of public consultation and photocopying is under consideration to be extended to notification, search reports and decisions issued to applicant in the substantive examination procedure.
For the file of a pant application for which grant of patent right has been published, the scope of public consultation and photocopying is under consideration to include the search reports.
(6) Suspension due to execution assistance of property preservation
For the suspension due to execution assistance of property preservation requested by the People’s Court, the Patent Office shall suspend the procedure in accordance with the term of the property preservation specified in the civil written order and in the execution assisting notice, and cancel the six-month time limit of the renewal of the suspension procedure.
For details of official description of the changes and modification content, please refer to the link below:
http://www.sipo.gov.cn/tz/gz/201610/t20161027_1298360.html