[Article / Chinese patents] Points to note when claiming priority in China—focusing on a Chinese Supreme Court judgment (Jun Lin, Chunfeng Hu, Patent, December 2023)
更新日：10月14日
Article information
Article type: Publication review
Display and classification checked: 2026-09-30
Categories: China
Topics: Priority / Novelty
Published on this website: 2026-09-29
[Article / Chinese patents] Points to note when claiming priority in China—focusing on a Chinese Supreme Court judgment (Jun Lin, Chunfeng Hu, Patent, December 2023)
Chinese Supreme Court, (2019) 最高法行申 No. 12487
1. Case outline
The application was rejected for lack of novelty (self-collision) based on earlier application 134.
2. Chinese Supreme Court’s findings: Priority denied
(1) Method-step limitations (risk of generalization)
Earlier application 134 limited the “steps before cooling (before/after addition of specified agents),” but claim 2 of later application 004 removed that limitation.
Not limiting the pre-cooling steps creates a substantive difference in the invention’s scope. Priority denied.
(2) Continuous numerical ranges
Earlier application 134 specified “180 g/l–280 g/l,” whereas claim 3 of later application 004 broadened this to “170 g/l–280 g/l.”
A numerical range is regarded as one independent technical feature, so partial priority was denied.
3. Priority and novelty
Priority is assessed by whether there is a substantive difference (the first-application principle).
For novelty, partial overlap between the scope of the invention disclosed in prior art and the claimed invention’s scope negates novelty.
→ Novelty
4. Practical approach to securing priority in China
Completely separate the priority-entitled scope and the new scope into different claims.
Originally posted on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7510495971680735232/
Related articles and decisions
Updates and corrections
This log starts on 30 September 2026. Display and classification checks are distinct from a review of the legal analysis.
2026-09-30 — Presentation update: added the article type, this change log and a link to consultation options. The existing article text was preserved.
2026-10-01 | Name notation: changed Hu Chunfeng and Lin Jun to the verified Roman-letter forms Chunfeng Hu and Jun Lin in the English text and navigation. Names verified against their 2015 coauthored Patent article and the JPAA English contents. No change to legal analysis.
コメント