Trilateral Project 24.1-Biotechnology 212

1993-Revised Patent Law (applicable to applications filed 1994.1.1)

In accordance with judgement relating to "new matter" which are applicable to applications filed on and after 1994.1.1, it is likely that the case in question is judged as a "new matter", since it can be allowed to amend only what is directly and unambiguously derivable by a person skilled in the art from the matters described in the specification and drawings initially attached.

In addition, in accordance with the practice which is applicable to applications filed before 1994.1.1, it can be allowed to add a new deposit number in the following cases which are described below as 1) 2).

• 1) An amendment of the accession number of a microorganism does not change the gist of the patent specification, where microbiological properties of the microorganism are described to the extent that the microorganism can be specified in the patent specification as filed, and the deposit of the microorganism can be specified based on the name of the depository institution, etc.
• 2) In addition, an amendment converting a storage number of a microorganism to an accession number based on the deposit of the microorganism with a depository institution for the purpose of patent procedure does not exchange the gist of the patent specification, where the microorganism used is stored at a reliable public culture collection and the storage number of the microorganism is explicitly stated in the patent specification as filed, and that it is clear that the identity of the microorganism is not lost.

In JPO, the above described judgement does not depend on whether an application was published prior to an amendment or not.