CPA Attorney Honored with ACPAA Thesis-writing Award  

 

During recent years, there has been a difference in opinions about the interpretation of Article 33 of the Patent Law ("the Article"), an article pertaining to making amendments to patent documents. Specifically, the diverse opinions mainly concern what constitutes "new matter" in making amendments to patent applications.  

As a current practice, patent examiners during the examination process usually adhere to the Guidelines for Examination (2006) and limit the allowable scope of amendments to contents that can be "directly and unambiguously determined", or in even stricter sense, contents that can be "solely determined", from the description. This, however, has led to an abrupt increase in rejection of cases on the ground of non-compliance to the Article, thus evoking strong response within the patent agency industry and business entities.   

It is against this backdrop that All-China Patent Agents Association (ACPAA) has organized discussion sessions and thesis-writing contest for the participation of its members. In response to the writing contest, CPA attorneys Mr. Mao Liqun, Mr. Jiang Jun, Mr. Gao Wei and Mr. Sun Xiuwu have respectively submitted articles exploring the issue from different perspectives. Out of all the papers collected, eleven were selected and honored with award. CPA is proud to have its attorney Mr. Mao's article entitled "Historical Developments on Principles of Amendment Restrictions and Determination Criteria thereof in Japanese Patent Law" among the list of the winning articles. The awards were announced and presented on 25 November 2010 during an ACPAA-organized academic symposium on the theme of "Theory and Practice Regarding Article 33 of the Chinese Patent Law".

 

 

ACPAA's top management with awardees of the thesis-writing contest