Newsletter
VERIFICATION OF SIGNATURES AND SEALS ON PAT-ENT-RELATED APPLICATIONS
On 28 April 2006, the Intellectual Property Of-fice (IPO) announced its Guidelines for Verifi-cation of Signatures and Seals on Patent-Related Applications, which took effect from date of announcement. The main points of the Guide-lines are as follows:
When filing a patent-related application, the applicant must sign in the written application or impress his seal on it; if the applicant has appointed a patent agent, the application can be signed or sealed by the agent alone.
Determination of whether signatures and seals are consistent with each other shall be based on whether they are identical with the signa-ture or seal on the written application or Power of Attorney that have been submitted at the time of filing the patent application (the sig-nature or seal on record).
Based on the degree the content of a pat-ent-related application may affect the appli-cant’s right and interests, and on consideration of whether there is a likelihood of misrepre-sentation, the IPO will conduct reviews in the following manner where an applicant's sig-nature or seal is not identical with the signa-ture or seal on record:
1.If an application is filed for recordation of assignment, trust creation on patent, early laying-open, withdrawal, abandonment, and file history review (in case of pending applications, applications not yet allowed, opposition actions, and cancellation ac-tions), the applicant's signature or seal must be identical with the signature or seal on record; if the applicant's signatures or seals on the written application and evidentiary documents are not identical with the sig-nature or seal on record, the IPO will in-struct the applicant to provide a signature or seal that is identical with the signature or seal on record. However, the applicant may apply for a change of its signature or seal or submit an affidavit in lieu of an ap-plication for changing the signature or seal.
2.If an applicant applies for a change of its signature or seal and the concerned patent application has yet to be allowed, the ap-plicant need only submit evidentiary document or an affidavit. If the concerned patent application has been allowed, the applicant may submit only evidentiary documents, or submit an affidavit and a photocopy of the applicant’s personal identification document.
3.For other types of patent application, the applicant should sign or seal the written application; if the signature or seal is not identical with the signature or seal on re-cord, the applicant does not need to make any supplement thereof.
4.Matters that can be declared through affi-davits by an applicant can also be declared by affidavits of a patent agent.