The new Implementing Regulations of the Chinese Patent Law became effective on February 1, 2010, together with the new Guidelines for Examination.
The new implementing regulations and the guidelines for examination include detailed provisions that reflect the changes in the law. Some changes will be of particular note to foreign businesses.
For inventions made in China, the new regulations require applicants to go through security examination by disclosing the technical solution to the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) before filing patent applications outside of China. This is similar to the US foreign filing licence system. The applicants could choose to simply request this foreign filing licence without filing any applications in China.
Alternatively, they could file such a request on or after filing a Chinese application. The third option is to file a Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) application, which will be automatically deemed as a request. The guidelines further prescribe that the technical solution is written in Chinese for security examination purposes and suggest that it be drafted in the format of the description of a patent application.
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Chinese Patent Law, gene patents
