Patent Examination Guidelines amended – requirements for disclosure of specifications and drawings relaxed
Introduction On 29 September 2020 the Ministry of Economic Affairs announced an amendment to Volume 3 – Design Patent Substantive Examination of the Patent Examination Guidelines. On 1 November 2020 the amended version of the guidelines took effect. The amendment: relaxes the requirement for the disclosure of specifications and drawings; clearly stipulates that an architectural design and an interior design can be subject matter for a design patent; relaxes the requirement relating to design divisional applications; and amends the stipulation relating to graphical designs and others. This a...