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Examination Guidelines for Design

  • In line with the revision of the Design Act by the “Act for Partial Revision of the Unfair Competition Prevention Act, etc.” (Act No. 51 of June 14, 2023), we revised “Part I, Chapter II, Design Examination Process”, “Part II, Chapter I, Finding of the Design in an Application for Design Registration“, “Part III, Chapter III, Exception to Lack of Novelty”, “Part VII Advantage of the Priority under the Paris Convention”, “Part VIII, Chapter I, Division of Applications for Design Registration”, “Part VIII, Chapter II, Conversion of Application” and “Part IX, Chapter VIII, Right of Priority under the Paris Convention in International Applications for Design Registration”.
    Additionally, in this revision, we also revised “Part IV, Chapter I, Design Including a Graphic Image” from the perspective of clarification.
    This revised Examination Guidelines for Design applies to applications for design registration that are filed on or after January 1, 2024.
  • The column of [Partial Design] in the application is not required for applications filed on or after May 1, 2019.
    For details, please refer to the Statement in the column of [Partial Design] in the application is not required
  • For the previous version of Examination Guidelines for Design revised in December 2023, please refer to the Examination Guidelines for Design (PDF: 9,356KB)
  • For the Examination Guidelines for Design applied to applications filed on or before March 31, 2020, please refer to the “Examination Guidelines for Design before revision on April 1, 2020 (PDF: 6,485KB)”
  • Examination Guidelines for Design (all) (PDF: 10,017KB)

Contents

Part I Outline of Examination

Part II Finding of the Design and Filing an Application for Each Design

Part III Requirements for Design Registration

Part IV Individual Applications for Design Registration

Part V Related Design (PDF: 641KB)

Part VI Amendment

Part VII Advantage of the Priority under the Paris Convention (PDF:281KB)

Part VIII Special Application

Part IX International Application for Design Registration

Part X Others

[Last updated 12 July 2024]

Contact Us

Design Examination Standards Office

Japan Patent office

E-mail:PA1D00@jpo.go.jp

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