Newsletter
EXAMINATION FOR NEW UTIL-ITY MODEL PATENTS CHANGED
The amended Patent Law was promulgated by the President on 6 February 2003. New utility model patent applications filed after the new law comes into effect (expected 1 July 2004) will only be subject to formality examination because Article 135 of the new law provides that patent applications that are still pending when the amendments take effect are subject to the new law. Thus earlier applications for which no examination decision has been rendered by 1 July 2004 will also be subject to formality ex-amination, instead of substantive examination as at present.
Since the new law was promulgated, the Intel-lectual Property Office (IPO) has speeded up its examination of outstanding new utility model patent applications. However, due to the con-tinued inflow of new applications and the limited number of examiners, at the current rate of pro-gress the IPO is not likely to decide all out-standing applications before the new law takes effect. Accordingly, the IPO stated in an an-nouncement dated 10 June 2003 that if new util-ity model patent applications filed on or after 1 July 2003 are still pending when the new law comes into effect, they will be subject to for-mality examination under the new law. The IPO also encouraged applicants to familiarize them-selves with the new law and to be prepared for the coming major changes.