Revision History of the Examination Handbook for Patent and Utility Model

February 2025

• Revision of the Examination Handbook for Patent and Utility Model（February 20）
• Addition of "8004 “Amendment under Article 34 of the Patent Cooperation Treaty”" to "Part VIII International Patent Application" (February 6)

June 2024

• Addition of "6130 Suspension of Examination of a Divisional Application While the Original Application is Pending Trial" to "Part VI Special Application Chapter 1 Division of Patent Application (Patent Act Article 44)" (June 27)

May 2024

• Revision of the Examination Handbook for Patent and Utility Model in Japan in accordance with "commencement of operation of the System for Non-disclosure of Patent Applications"（May 1）

March 2024

• Revision of the Examination Handbook for Patent and Utility Model（March 13）

July 2023

• Revision of the Examination Handbook for Patent and Utility Model（July 1）

April 2023

• Revision of the Examination Handbook for Patent and Utility Model（April 1）

July 2022

• Revision of the Examination Handbook for Patent and Utility Model（July 1）

April 2022

• Revision of the Examination Handbook for Patent and Utility Model (April 1)

May 2021

• Revision of the Examination Handbook for Patent and Utility Model (May 6)

December 2020

• Revision of the Examination Handbook for Patent and Utility Model (December 28)
• Revision of the Examination Handbook for Patent and Utility Model (December 16)

September 2020

• Revision of the Examination Handbook for Patent and Utility Model (September 30)

April 2020

• Revision of the Examination Handbook for Patent and Utility Model (April 15)

April 2019

• Revision of the Examination Handbook for Patent and Utility Model (April 3)

March 2019

• Revision of the Examination Handbook for Patent and Utility Model (March 27)
  The revised Examination Handbook for Patent and Utility Model in Japan is applied to examination on the applications for registration of patent term extension of the patent applications filed on or after March 10, 2020.

January 2019

• Revision of the Examination Handbook for Patent and Utility Model (January 30)

June 2018

• Revision of the Examination Handbook for Patent and Utility Model (June 9)

April 2018

• Revision of the Examination Handbook for Patent and Utility Model (April 1)

March 2017

• Revision of the Examination Handbook for Patent and Utility Model (March 22)

September 2016

• Revision of the Examination Handbook for Patent and Utility Model (September 28)

April 2016

• Revision of the Examination Handbook for Patent and Utility Model (April 1)

October 2015

• Revision of the Examination Handbook for Patent and Utility Model (October 1)

[Last updated 20 February 2025]

Contact Us

Examination Standards Office, Administrative Affairs Division, Japan Patent Office E-mail : PA2A10@jpo.go.jp