Examination Guidelines for Patent and Utility Model in Japan applied to the examination up to September 30^th 2015

Examination Guidelines for Patent and Utility Model in Japan is revised in September16th 2015. The following Examination Guidelines is applied the examination up to September 30th 2015.

Applicable periods and applications of this Guidelines (PDF:58KB)

Part Ⅰ Description and Claims

Table of Contents (PDF:28KB)
Chapter 1 Requirements for Description and Claims (PDF:725KB)
Chapter 2 Requirements of Unity of Invention (PDF:1,114KB)
(Reference) Requirements for Unity of Application (PDF:1,051KB) * Applied to the application on or before December 31, 2003
Chapter 3 Requirements for Disclosure of Information on Prior Art Document (PDF:149KB)

Part Ⅱ Requirements for Patentability

Table of Contents (PDF:82KB)
Chapter 1 Industrially Applicable Inventions (PDF:440KB)
Chapter 2 Novelty and Inventive Step (PDF:295KB)
Chapter 3 Patent Act Article 29bis (PDF:160KB)
Chapter 4 Patent Act Article 39 (PDF:141KB)
Chapter 5 Treatment of Information Disclosed on the Internet as Prior Art (PDF:79KB)

Part Ⅲ Amendment of Description, Claims and Drawings

Part Ⅳ Priority

Table of Contents (PDF:34KB)
Chapter 1 Priority under the Paris Convention (PDF:143KB)
Chapter 2 Internal Priority (PDF:100KB)

Part Ⅴ Special Applications

Table of Contents (PDF:48KB)
Chapter 1 Division of Application (PDF:255KB)
Chapter 2 Conversion of Application (PDF:66KB)
Chapter 3 Patent Application Based on Utility Model Registration (PDF:69KB)

Part Ⅵ Patent Term Extension

Part Ⅶ Examination Guidelines for Inventions in Specific Fields

Table of Contents (PDF:79KB)
Chapter 1 Computer Software-Related Inventions (PDF:614KB)
Chapter 2 Biological Inventions (PDF:347KB) * Examples of Inventions Relating to Protein Conformation are to be prepared
Chapter 3 Medicinal Inventions (PDF:203KB)

Part Ⅷ Foreign Language Application

Part Ⅸ Procedure of Examination

Part Ⅹ Utility Model

Appendix

Measurement Act (PDF:61KB) [Act No. 51 of 1992 (extract)]

[Last updated 16 September 2015]

Examination Standards Office,

Administrative Affairs Division,

Japan Patent Office

E-mail : PA2A10@jpo.go.jp

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Address:3-4-3 Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku Tokyo 100-8915, Japan

Examination Guidelines for Patent and Utility Model in Japan applied to the examination up to September 30th 2015

Contents