Newsletter
IPO PRACTICE ON AMEND-MENTS TO INVENTION PATENT APPLICATIONS
In a recent interpretation on the issue of whether, following the most recent amendments to the Patent Act, the old or the new Act applies to amendments to invention patent applications, the Intellectual Property Office stated that Article 135 of the new Act provides that the provisions of the new Act shall apply to the subsequent processing of all patent applications on which a decision as to grant of patent has not been ren-dered at the time when the new Act takes effect.
Accordingly, amendments to the specification or drawings of an invention patent application on which no decision had been rendered by 1 July 2004 should be handled in accordance with Ar-ticle 49 Paragraph 4 of the new Act; that is, such amendments may not exceed the scope of the invention as disclosed in the specification and drawings at the time of filing.