Patent Case Law and Intellectual Property Practice Blog

1. The Japan Patent Office's (JPO) “first alternative” principle In chemistry and biotechnology, compounds and sequences are commonly expressed as alternatives (Markush form), such as “R is A, B or C” or “any of SEQ ID NOs. 1–4.” Under Japan's Examination Guidelines, the first-listed alternative is, in principle, selected for examination when assessing unity (Patent Act Article 37).

In Japan, the 2016 revision of the Examination Guidelines strengthened protection for food-use inventions, but overseas, national laws and examination practices differ greatly. 1. Permissible claims ① US: Product-use inventions are not recognized; draft as methods. A use in the preamble often has no limiting effect.

日本語版 / Japanese version Article information Type: Case note Classification: Patents Topics: Added matter, Examination and appeal practice First published on this site: 2023-12-19 Case number: Reiwa 3 (Gyo-Ke) 10097 Display and classification checked: 2026-11-14 Reiwa 3 (Gyo-Ke) 10097 [Golf Swing Monitoring System] <Otaka> * General principles for amendments increasing the number of claims An amendment increasing the number of claims is itself permitted ‘if a new post-amendm

日本語版 / Japanese version Article information Type: Legal and examination updates Classification: Patents Topics: Added matter, Examination and appeal practice First published on this site: 2023-12-04 Display and classification checked: 2026-11-14 [Examination Guidelines / Annex A] Addition of New Matter: Amendments Based on Drawings (8 Examples), p. 549 The presence or absence of a component and positional relationships are relatively easy to perceive from drawings. but (1)

The report compiles discussions among administrative patent judges, corporate practitioners, patent attorneys and attorneys at law. Hideki Takaishi participated in the mechanical field.

Read the Japanese version / 日本語版を読む Following fiscal year 2012, I compiled the portions of the report for which I was responsible as vice-chair. They were published in the October through December 2014 issues of Patent. English translation of the Japanese article.

Read the Japanese version / 日本語版を読む It was published in the March 2014 issue of Patent. As sub-leader, I compiled the third category. Please refer to it to check the trends in recent court decisions concerning the assessment of inventive step. English translation of the Japanese article.