Japan: The end of ‘multi-multi claims’
As of April 1, 2022, “Multi-multi claims“ are restricted by a Ministerial Order amendment referring to “claims that selectively cite two or more other claims and claims that selectively cite the citations of two or more other claims.“
Multi-multi claims are no longer allowed in patent and utility model applications filed in Japan. The purpose is to pursue the goal of international harmonisation and reduce the burden of examination processing and monitoring by third parties.
The Japan Patent Office (JPO) advises people to be careful when filing applications. It also provides a tool (in Japanese only) to check whether multiple claims are included within the scope of claims.
The tool will be launched in a browser. Users enter or copy and paste the description of the claims to be detected in the multi-multi claim directly into the input field. It can also be used in an offline environment to check unpublished projects before filing.
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