Let's continue the discussion on “Introduction to Intellectual Property and Understanding Intellectual Property”. Among them, today, we will look at the “system that allows changes to the contents of an invention after filing an application”.
1. Amendment System
Amendment of a patent application refers to the procedure for amending the patent application during the course of the application process due to the existence of deficiencies or defects in the contents of the application and specification. The amendment system consists of substantive correction and procedural correction. Substantive correction means correction of a defect in the specification or drawings, and procedural correction means correcting the defect if the patent procedure that is inconsistent with the relevant laws and regulations.
1) Amendment period for substantive amendment: In principle, substantive amendment can be made at any time before the delivery of a certified copy of the patent decision. However, submission of a written opinion on the notification of reasons for refusal is set as 2 months from the date of notification, and the date of request for reexamination is set 30 days from the notification of the decision of refusal.
2) Amendment scope of substantive correction: Amendment of the specification or drawings is possible only within the scope of the matters described in the origianl specification or drawings. That is, adding new items is prohibited.
2. Domestic priority system
Domestic priority system, if the same applicant makes a later application after making an improved invention of the earlier application, regards the latter application as adding new contents to the invention filed on the date of the earlier application. That is, the latter application is regarded as filed on the filing date of the earliar application.
3. Divisional application system
Divisional application system means that when two or more inventions are included in one application, some of the inventions can be separated and divided into separate applications. The period for filing a divisional application is the same as the amendment period. In principle, a legal divisional application is considered to have been filed on the first filing date, and a divisional application is regarded as an application for a new invention.
1) In the case of divisional application for inventions of higher and lower concepts: For example, when applying for a patent for LCD among displays, if each independent claims were made to LCD and display separately, it can be considered as divisional application for LCD and display. The applicant therefore can secure the LCD patent quickly, then deal with the display portion as a divisional application to secure wide range of rights.
2) Securing liquidity of rights: If a future-use technology is applied to a product released during the application period, the content of the claims may not match the product. In this case, it is necessary to revise the contents of the specification. In this case, a strategy can be chosen that leaves room for amendment of claims later by using the divisional application system.
Today, we learned about the “system that allows changes to invention contents after filing”. Next, we will discuss “patent requirements”.
*I am a student learning IP, not an IP expert. Translation is also a translator and my short English skills. I hope it will be helpful for those who do not have the relevant knowledge or who want to learn about IP.
*The above is what I learned from a book compiled by the Korean Intellectual Property Office and Korea Invention Promotion Association (published by Pakmungak) entitled “Introduction to Intellectual Property, Understanding Intellectual Property”.
댓글