EXPEDITED ISSUANCE OF NEW UTILITY MOTEL TECHNICAL REPORT

03/01/2009

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According to an announcement issued by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) on 23 January 2009, the IPO is to adopt the following measure in order to expedite issuance of new utility model technical reports:

       

	Ÿ	Handling Guidelines in Case of a Co-pending Amendment Application
		Under the previous practice, when issuing a new utility model technical report, if there was an application for amendment and if the patentee stated that the technical comparison should be made based on the amendment approved and published, the IPO should issue a decision on the amendment application first and later issue the new utility model technical report.
		Now, when issuing a new utility model technical report, if there is an application for amendment, the IPO is to issue a new utility model technical report within the statutory time limit.  However, if the patentee states that the technical comparison should be made based on the amendment that is approved and published, the IPO will issue a decision on the amendment application first and later issue a new utility model technical report.
	Ÿ	Notifications of New Utility Model Technical Reports
		Previously, if an IPO officer deemed that any of the claims did not meet the novelty or inventive step requirement, he (she) should notify the patent owner to provide an explanation.
		Under the new practice, the IPO will notify the patent owner to provide explanation only when all the claims do not meet the novelty or inventive step requirement.
	Ÿ	Handling of Citations in New Utility Model Technical Reports
		In addition to the literature(s) cited by the IPO in its notification, a new utility model technical report, in principle, should not be attached with patent prior art.  Nevertheless, in case of new utility model technical reports sought by individual applicants or in case of prior arts that are difficult to be obtained or non-patent prior arts, the IPO will continue attaching to new utility model technical reports copies of the concerned literatures/prior art references.