AMENDED GUIDELINES FOR PATENT INTERVIEWS TOOK EFFECT

07/01/2004

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The Guidelines for Patent Interviews have been amended as a result of the 2003 Patent Act amendment, and also took effect on 1 July 2004. The main points of the amendments are as fol-lows:

To ensure ample communication between an applicant and examiner, the Guidelines re-moves examiners' option to dispense with an interview for cases under the examination stage.

Any other person connected with a case may attend an interview held for the case if he provides a Power of Attorney and has ob-tained a permission from the Intellectual Property Office (IPO). A person who does not provide a Power of Attorney may attend an interview as an observer, with a permission from the IPO, if his attendance will not hinder the processing of the interview. However, such a person may not speak at the interview without permission.

The IPO must give notice of an interview in writing, and not by telephone.

Both the IPO and the party to the concerned case may make audio or video recording of the processing of an interview.

Interview minutes should be made during the interview, stating the date, time, and place of interview, persons attending (including ob-servers) interview, matters addressed, and the main points of questions raised and their an-swers. Those attending the interview should append their signatures or seals after the tex-tual content on the interview minute. A per-son who refuses to sign or stamp the minute should state the reason for not doing so in writing on the minutes.

If a person called to interview fails to attend at the appointed time and place, the IPO may conduct its examination directly, unless the person concerned requests a change of inter-view time for proper reasons. Only one such request may be made, and it must be commu-nicated to the IPO in writing, by fax, or by telephone no later than the day before the in-terview day. The IPO will then schedule a new interview time and designate its location.