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“THE CHINESE PATENT LAW ALSO TIGHTENS THE NOVELTY REQUIREMENT TO CHANGE THE LAW FROM ‘PUBLICLY DISCLOSED IN CHINA’ TO ‘PUBLICLY DISCLOSED ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD’.”


With the increase in the number of patent applications, China revised its Patent Law in 2008 and the revised Patent Law entered into force in October 1, 2009. T e revised Patent Law updates and improves some of the defi ciencies of the previous law, in order to better align with foreign patent systems.


Secrecy Examination According to Article 20 of the revised law,


- where any entity or individual intends to fi le an application for a patent abroad for any invention or utility model developed in China, they must request in advance a secrecy examination.


- for an invention or utility model, if a patent application has been fi led in a foreign country in violation of the above provision, it will not be granted a patent in China.


T e object of the secrecy examination is to tackle the fi rst fi ling issue, which is similar to the requirement for foreign fi ling licenses in the US and Singapore.


A party can request a secrecy examination using any of the following actions:


- fi le a separate request for secrecy examination along with the submission of detailed description of the invention, if a priority patent application for this invention is not fi led in China;


- fi le a request for secrecy examination at the time of fi ling a patent application at the Chinese Patent Offi ce (CPO) or thereaſt er; or


- fi le a PCT application at the CPO which will act as a simultaneous request for secrecy examination.


56 World Intellectual Property Review November/December 2011


According to Article 20, Chinese individuals or entities will no longer have to fi le an application for a Chinese patent for inventions or utility models made in China before fi ling elsewhere, provided that the secrecy examination is passed.


Generally, an offi cial notice regarding the secrecy examination will be issued by the CPO to permit the applicant to fi le foreign applications within about four months, unless the invention is related to national security or vital economic interests. If no offi cial notice is received within four months, the applicant will be deemed to have been allowed to fi le foreign applications.


One point to note about the secrecy examination is that this requirement is imposed on invention and utility model applications only, but not


applicable to design applications. Additionally, fi ling the request for secrecy examination is necessary if the substance of the invention is created and/or developed in China, regardless of whether the invention belongs to a domestic entity or individual or a foreign entity or individual.


Failing to comply with the requirement of secrecy examination would result in refusal to grant the application in China and/or invalidation of granted Chinese patent.


Absolute novelty


T e Chinese Patent Law also tightens the novelty requirement to change the law from ‘publicly disclosed in China’ to ‘publicly disclosed anywhere in the world’. T is absolute novelty is introduced to align with the novelty requirement in other countries.


It is important to note the impact of a confl icting application on the assessment of novelty. In the revised Patent Law, a confl icting application fi led by the applicant can be used to assess the late- fi led application by the same applicant. T erefore, care should be taken over the disclosure of the invention when the patent specifi cation is written, in order to avoid loss of the novelty of the same applicant’s later-fi led application. For example, there might be a situation where a new compound is confi rmed to be eff ective for the treatment of cancers, but whether this compound can be useful for the treatment of diabetes mellitus needs to be further verifi ed. In this case, it would be advisable not to disclose the second medical use of the compound for the diabetes mellitus in the earlier-fi led application, otherwise the novelty of the later-fi led application claiming this second medical use will be destroyed by the earlier-fi led application.


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