[Title Page]
Foreword to the English Edition / Sung, Yunmo
Contents
PART I. General Rules 16
Chapter 1. Capacity 18
1. Relevant Provisions 18
2. Patent-related Proceedings 19
3. Incompetents 20
4. Capacity to Hold Rights by Association such as Juristic Person 23
5. Legal Capacity of Overseas Residents 25
6. Capacity of Foreigners to Hold Rights 25
7. Effect of Treaty 26
Chapter 2. Agents 28
1. Relevant Provisions 28
2. Overview of Representation 30
3. Legal Representative 32
4. Contractual Representative 35
5. Patent Administrator 37
6. Appointment or Replacement of Representative 39
7. Other Provisions for Representation 46
Chapter 3. Period 49
1. Relevant Provisions 49
2. Type of Period 50
3. Calculation of Periods 51
4. Extension of Periods 55
Chapter 4. Invalidation of Proceeding and Return of Document 61
1. Relevant Provisions 61
2. General Principles of Formalities Examination 67
3. Invalidation of Proceeding 68
4. Revocation of Invalidation 71
5. Return of Documents 73
6. Subsequent Completion of Proceeding 75
7. Restoration of Patent Application 75
Chapter 5. Discontinuation and Resumption of Proceeding 77
1. Relevant Provisions 77
2. Discontinuation of Proceeding 80
3. Continuation of Proceeding and Succession of Effect 86
Chapter 6. Submission and Service of Documents 88
1. Relevant Provisions 88
2. Submission of Documents 91
3. Service of Documents 95
Chapter 7. Fees 104
1. Relevant Provisions 104
2. Payment of Fees 106
3. Reduction of Patent Fees or Official Fees 110
4. Refund of Patent Fees or Official Fees 124
Chapter 8. Other Patent-Related Proceedings 127
1. Relevant Provisions 127
2. Inspection of Documents 128
3. Prohibition of Documents from Being Taken out or laying Open to Public 129
4. Referencing of Document 129
5. Offense of Divulging Confidential Information, etc. 131
PART II. Patent Application 134
Chapter 1. Patent Application 136
1. Relevant Provisions 136
2. Inventor 138
3. Successor in Title 140
4. Protection of legitimate Holder of Right 145
5. Reference 148
Chapter 2. Patent Application Documents 150
1. Relevant Provision 150
2. Application Cover Sheet 150
3. Abstract 152
4. Specification 153
5. Drawings 156
Chapter 3. Description of Invention 158
1. Relevant Provision 158
2. Enablement Requirement 159
3. Description Method Requirements 166
4. Requirement for Description of Background Art 172
6. Notification Method of Rejection Ground 179
Chapter 4. Claims 181
1. Relevant Provisions 181
2. Recognition of Invention 182
3. Claims Supported by Description of Invention 183
4. Clear and Concise Statement of Invention 186
5. Description of matters deemed necessary for Specification of Invention 198
6. Claim Drafting Requirements 199
7. System for Deferral of Submission of Claims 205
Chapter 5. Unity of Invention 208
1. Relevant Provisions 208
2. Purpose of System 208
3. General Consideration 209
4. Determination on Unity of Invention 211
5. Examples of Determination on Unity of Invention 213
6. Determination on Unity of Invention in special cases 216
7. Special Cases 221
8. Instructions on Examination of Unity of Invention 225
Chapter 6. Application related to Microorganisms 228
1. Relevant Provisions 228
2. Deposit System 229
3. Application Procedure 231
4. Instructions on Examination 232
5. Patent Application including Nucleic Acid Sequence or Amino Acid Sequence 236
PART III. Requirements for Patentability 238
Chapter 1. Industrial Applicability 240
1. Relevant Provisions 240
2. Purport 240
3. Relevant Provisions 240
4. Statutory Inventions 241
5. Industrially inapplicable invention 248
Chapter 2. Novelty 252
1. Relevant Provisions 252
2. Purport 252
3. Understanding of Provisions 253
4. Determination of Novelty 267
5. Disclosure exceptions 282
Chapter 3. Inventive Step 296
1. Relevant Provisions 296
2. Purport 296
3. Definition of Terminologies 297
4. General principles of determining the inventive step 298
5. Method of determining the inventive step 299
6. Concrete method of determining Inventive step 303
7. Determination of the inventive step of a combination invention 322
8. Other factors to be taken into account in determining obviousness 327
9. Notes on determination as to whether the claimed invention has an inventive step 329
Chapter 4. Enlarged Concept of Novelty 333
1. Relevant Provisions 333
2. Purport of Article 29(3) 335
3. Conditions to meet the requirement of Article 29 (3) and (4) 335
4. Exceptions for applying the provisions of Enlarged Concept of Novelty 340
5. Special Rules Where Another application is an International Application 341
6. Method of Determination of Identicalness 343
Chapter 5. First-To-File Rule 350
1. Relevant Provisions 350
2. Purport of Patent Act Article 36 351
3. Application Requirement 351
4. Examination Method 353
5. Instruction on Examination 360
Chapter 6. Unpatentable Invention 363
1. Relevant Provision 363
2. Purport of Patent Act Article 32 363
3. Unpatentable invention 363
Part IV. Amendment of Specification, Claims or Drawing(s) 366
Chapter 1. Overview of Amendment 368
1. Article 47 of the Patent Act 368
2. Purport of Amendment 369
3. Amendment Requirements 370
4. Amendment Period 372
Chapter 2. Scope of Permissible Amendment 374
1. Voluntary Amendment and Amendment in reply to Non-final Rejection 374
2. Amendment in reply to Rejection necessitated by amendment or on Request for Reexamination 381
Chapter 3. Refusal to enter Amendment 389
1. Articles 51 and 63 of the Patent Act 389
2. Requirements for Refusal to enter Amendment 390
3. Examination Method of Requirements for Refusal to enter Amendment 391
4. Cautions for Making a Decision to refuse to enter Amendment 393
Part V. Examination Procedure 396
Chapter 1. General Examination Procedure 398
1. Overview 398
2. Designation of Examiner 402
3. Patent Classification (CPC, IPC) Assignment 407
4. Laying Open of Application 421
5. Request for Examination 423
6. Start of Examination 425
7. Processing Deadline 428
8. General Principles for Law Application 430
Chapter 2. Search for Prior Art 431
1. Overview of Search for Prior Art 431
2. Procedure Prior To Search for Prior Art 431
3. Search Procedure 432
4. Measures after Searching 438
5. Search for Prior Art by Authorized Prior Art Search Institute 438
Chapter 3. Examination Process 441
1. Overview 441
2. Understanding of Invention 442
3. Review of Prior Art Documents 442
4. Special Application 443
5. Notice of Grounds for Rejection 460
6. Instructions for Written Argument and Others 490
7. Additional Search 502
8. Examination Deferral or Extension of Processing Period 502
9. Document Service 506
10. Personal Interview 508
11. Amendment in Response to Final Rejection Necessitated by Amendment 512
12. Decision to Grant or Reject 518
13. Cancellation of Examination Measures 521
Chapter 4. Reexamination 524
1. Overview 524
2. Reexamination Procedure 524
3. Instructions for Reexamination 531
Chapter 5. Patent Application filed in a language other than Korean 533
1. Overview 533
2. Introduction of new matter beyond the foreign language specification and beyond the Korean translations 538
3. Correction of mistranslation 545
4. Considerations for a foreign language application 554
Part VI. SPECIAL APPLICATIONS 562
Chapter 1. Divisional Application 564
1. Article 52 of the Patent Act 564
2. Purport 566
3. Requirements for Division 566
4. Procedure of Divisional Application 570
5. Effects of Divisional Application 572
6. Examination of Divisional Application 573
Chapter 2. Converted Application 578
1. Article 53 of the Patent Act 578
2. Purport 579
3. Requirement for Conversion 580
4. Procedure of Converted Application 582
5. Effect of Converted Application 583
6. Examination of Converted Application 584
Chapter 3. Application with Priority Claim under the Treaty 589
1. Article 54 of the Patent Act 589
2. Purport 590
3. Requirements for Priority Claim under the Treaty 591
4. Proceedings for Priority Claim under the Treaty 596
5. Effects of Priority Claim under the Treaty 599
6. Amendment to Priority Claim under the Treaty 600
7. Examination of Application Claiming Priority under the Treaty 603
Chapter 4. Application with Domestic Priority Claim 616
1. Article 55 of Patent Act (Priority Claims Based on Patent Applications, etc.) 616
2. Purport 618
3. Requirements for Domestic Priority Claim 619
4. Procedure of Domestic Priority Claim 621
5. Effect of Domestic Priority Claim 622
6. Amendment to Domestic Priority Claim 624
7. Examination of Application of Domestic Priority Claim 626
PART VII. Other Examination Procedures 632
Chapter. 1 Patent Term Extension for Approval, etc. 634
1. Relevant Provisions 634
2. Purport 635
3. Subject for Registration for Patent Term Extension 635
4. Period allowed for Extension 639
5. Application of Registration for Extension of Patent Term by Approval, etc. 640
6. Examination 647
7. Other Examination Procedures 662
Chapter 2. Extension of Patent Term for Delays in Registration 663
1. Relevant Provisions 663
2. Purport 672
3. Period Eligible for Extension 673
4. Application for Registration of Patent Term Extension for Delay in Registration 683
5. Examination 688
6. Other Examination Procedures 700
Chapter 3. Examination on National Defense-related Application 701
1. Relevant Provisions 701
2. Purport 704
3. Overview of National Defense-related Application 705
4. Procedure for Handling National Defense-related Application 707
5. Examination on National Defense-related Application Transferred to Examination Bureau 712
6. Management of Application Documents Deemed Confidential 713
7. Prohibition and Permission of Application Filing Overseas 715
Chapter 4. Expedited Examination 718
1. Relevant Provisions 718
2. Overview of Expedited Examination 720
3. Objects Eligible for Expedited Examination 723
4. Guidelines of Determination on Expedited Examination by Subject 748
Chapter 5. Reconsideration by Examiners before Appeal Proceedings 803
1. Relevant Provisions 803
2. Purport 804
3. Requirements for Reconsideration by Examiners before Appeal Proceedings 805
4. Review process 805
Chapter 6. Ex-officio re-examination 815
1. Relevant Provisions 815
2. Summary of ex-officio Re-examination System 815
3. Requirement of ex-officio re-examination 816
4. Notes for ex-officio re-examination 816
PART VIII. Positive Examination Guideline 818
Chapter 1. Positive Examination by Suggesting Amendment 820
1. Overview 820
2. Target Application 820
3. Method to suggest amendment 820
4. Example for inappropriate suggestion of amendment 824
Chapter 2. Ex officio Amendment 827
1. Relevant regulations 827
2. Overview of ex-officio amendment 827
3. Matters to be amended ex-officio 828
4. A procedure of ex-officio amendment 831
5. A re-examination procedure in response to non-acceptance of ex-officio amendment 832
6. Note for ex-officio amendment 833
Chapter 3. Re-Notice of the Ground for Rejection 835
Chapter 4. Preliminary Examination 837
1. Overview 837
2. Details of preliminary examination 837
3. Procedure of request for preliminary examination and decision 838
4. Procedure of preliminary examination interview 841
5. Process after preliminary examination interview 847
Chapter5. Pre-amendment communication 850
1. Overview 850
2. Details of pre-amendment communication 850
3. Process of request for pre-amendment communication and determination 851
4. Procedure of pre-amendment communication interview 854
5. Process after pre-amendment communication interview 858
Chapter6. Collective examination 860
1. Overview 860
2. Details of collective examination 860
3. Process of collective examination 861
Part IX. Examination Criteria by Technolgy 866
Chapter 1. Biotechnological Inventions 868
1. Requirements for the Description and Claim(s) 868
2. General requirements for patentability 872
Chapter 2. Invention of Pharmaceutical and Cosmetics 875
1. Requirements for the description of the invention and the claims 875
2. Requirements for Patentability 877
Chapter 3. Invention of Food 883
1. Overview 883
2. Requirements for description and claim(s) 883
3. Unpatentable invention 887
Chapter 4. Invention of functional drinking water 889
1. Overview 889
2. Requirements for the description of the invention 889
3. Requirements for patentability 890
Chapter5. Chemical compound invention (organic/inorganic chemistry) 892
1. Requirements for description, claim(s) 892
2. Requirements for patentability 894
Chapter 6. Alloy Invention 903
1. Overview 903
2. Requirements for description and claim(s) 904
3. Addition of new matter to specification 909
4. Requirements for patentability 911
Chapter 7. Invention of Polymers 919
1. Requirements for description and Claim(s) 919
Chapter 8. Invention of textile industry 924
1. Requirements for description 924
2. Considerations when determining inventive step 924
3. How to convert certain unit used in field of textile industry 928
Chapter 9. Invention of architectural design 930
1. Requirements for specification 930
2. Requirements for patentability 931
Chapter 10. Computer-related inventions 934
1. Description Requirements for Specification 934
2. Requirements for Patentability 942
Copyright 955