Matters of Cooperation for Patent Applications

1.Inventor should submit patent application documents in paper and electronic file as required, the content be as complete and detailed as possible, and give necessary assistance during examination procedure.
2.During patent application procedure, the inventor should provide necessary technical documents and explanation, and assist commissioned office in the writing of patent specification and other materials.
3.Inventor should provide supplementary, revision, response and other related materials within the examination or application deadline, or otherwise regarded as abandonment.

Patent Search and Analysis

Conducting patent search and analysis in the relevant field prior to filing can help understand competitor’s technical capability, and avoid patent infringement of others, at the same time find the competitive edge of oneself. This also assist R&D personnel in understanding the latest developments in their fields globally, so as to enhance the technical level of research results.

The Importance of Research Notebook

The main purpose of research notebook is to record research steps and results in detail, to completely record the research and development process including date, completed items, technical content that need to break through later, reason for failure, number of times of validation and implementability. Recording R&D concepts and results regularly in research notebook can extend completeness of R&D and enhance research progress, and can be useful evidence in case of lawsuit. When invention has been stolen and patented or in case of patent infringement, concrete evidence is necessary and research notebook plays a pivotal role at that time, so as to prove that your invention was earlier than someone elses’.

Three Critical Components of Patent

Application must contain the following three basic components in order to receive patent.

1.Industrial Applicability
According to Clause 1, Article 22 of the Patent Act, an invention must be industrially applicable in order to be granted a patent. The examination guideline defines “industry” as activities in any field that use law of nature and is technical, generalized as Industrial, Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing, Farming, Mining, Aquaculture, Transportation, Communication, Business, etc. Applicability refers to invention applying for patent can be produced or used.

2.Novelty
According to Article 22 of the Patent Act, invention disclosed in a printed publication, publicly exploited or publicly known prior to filing of the patent application loses novelty. The examination guideline states invention of the patent application that is not part of “prior art” possess novelty, “prior art” includes any publicly known information prior to date of application, not limited to location, language or form such as in writing, electronically, Internet, verbal, demonstration or usage.

3.Progressiveness
According to Article 22 of the Patent Act, an invention that can be easily made by a person ordinarily skilled in the art, although is without the circumstances prescribed in preceding, shall not be patented and is not considered progressive. Invention prior to date of application that can be easily made by a person ordinarily skilled in the art is not progressive, and vice versa.