Newsletter
YEAR 2005 STATISTICS FOR FIRST EXAMINATION OF IN-VENTION PATENT APPLICA-TIONS
On 17 May 2006, the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) announced the following statistics:
The percentage of invention patent applica-tions for which pre-rejection notices were is-sued at the first examination stage rose from 33.9% in the first half of 2005 to 44.9% in the second half of the year.
The percentage of invention patent applica-tions subsequently approved after pre-rejection notices were issued rose from 19.36% in the first half of 2005 to 26.83% in the second half of the year.
The percentage of total invention patent ap-plications approved in the first half of 2005 was 81.91%, down approximately 4% from 85.45% in the first half of the year.
The numerical ratio of invention patent ap-plications for which no pre-rejection notices were issued to those for which pre-rejection notices were issued was 30:15 (2:1) in the first half of 2005, and 30:24 (5:4) in the second half of the year.
As the IPO stated that (1) after it adopted the practice of "claim-by-claim examination," its staff has become well versed in such new ex-amination practice, and examinations are be-coming more comprehensive and rigorous; and (2) although the adoption of claim-by-claim examination makes the examination process more demanding, in practice this approach can enhance the quality of examinations.