2019 Annual Report Intellectual Property Office

III. IPR LEGAL REGIME • Examination Guidelines for Managing Priority Claims of Design Patent To avoid disputes over recognizing priority claims of design patents and protracted patent examination due to administrative remedies initiated from disputes, TIPO revised Chapter V of Part 3 of the Guidelines, which took effect on September 12. • Examination Guidelines on Medical-Related Invention Patent Applications To facilitate convenience in the filing of medical-related invention applications regarding new therapeutic uses, TIPO revised the Guidelines and added explanatory cases. In September, TIPO held a public hearing to seek public feedback. On November 5, TIPO published the amended Guidelines, which took effect on January 1, 2020. The key revisions include: (1) Article/Paragraph 2.2.1 "Claims Including Therapeutic and Non-therapeutic Methods" was added and related regulations were adjusted and supplemented. (2) Regulations governing the composition of Swiss-type claims were revised. (3) Five novelty cases were added. (4) Statements on the non-inventiveness of hydrates were added. (5) Five cases on inventive steps were added. • Partial Amendment of 2019 to the Patent Act Concerning Patent Examination Guidelines To align with the amendment to the Patent Act, TIPO revised the chapters concerning the Patent Substantive Examination Guidelines. Following rounds of public hearings and posting on TIPO's website, the Guidelines took effect on November 1. The key revisions include: (1) Chapter VII ("Office Action and Decision") of Section II: Add a new ground for rejecting a patent application; (2) Chapter IX ("Post-Grant Amendment of Invention Patents") of Section II: Specify the time period for an invention patentee to request a post-grant amendment; (3) Chapter X ("Division and Conversion") of Section II: Extend the time period for requesting a division after approval decisions; allow for requesting a division following an approval decision regarding reexamination; clarify the scope of a post- grant divisional request and methods of processing violations; (4) Chapter II ("Post-Grant Amendment to Ut i l i ty Model Patents" ) of Sect ion IV: Substantive examination is adopted for the post-grant amendment; specify the time period for a utility model patentee to request a post-grant amendment; (5) Chapter I ("Invalidation against a Patent") of Section V: Add a statutory ground for invalidation against a patent; specify the time period for an invalidation requester to submit supplementary reason or evidence; and XXII of Part 1 of the Guidelines, which took effect on November 1, 2019. 46