Requirements for Amendment
After filing an application, a Specification, Claims, and Drawings can be amended, but a timing and contents of the amendment are limited. Here we describe requirements for amendment regarding timing requirements and contents requirements.
1. Timing in which Amendment can be Filed
- The Specification, the Claims, and the Drawings can be amended in the following timings [Patent Law 17-2(1)].
(i) Until receiving of a Reasons for Rejection.
(ii) Within a predetermined period after receiving the Reasons for Rejection. The predegermined period is 3 months for appricants living outiside of Japan, and 60 days for applicants living in Japan.
(iii) At the timing when filing an Appeal against Examiner's Decision of Rejection.
2. Requirements Regarding Contents of Amendment
- The amendments of the Specification, the Claims, and the Drawings have to be made within a range described in the Specification, the Claims, and the Drawings originally filed [Patent Law 17-2(3)].
- Regarding the amendments of the Claims made within the predetermined period after receiving the Reasons for Rejection or at the timing when filing the Appeal against Examiner's Decision of Rejection, the claims before the amendment and the claims after the amendment have to have a relationship fuifilling the Unity of Invention Requirement [Patent Law 17-2(4)].
- Regarding the amendment of the Claims made within a predetermined period after receiving a Final Reasons for Rejection or at the timing when filing the Appeal against Examiner's Decision of Rejection, the amendment of the Claims is limited to those aiming one of the followings [Patent Law 17-2(5)].
(i) Deleting of a claim
(ii) Reduction of a scope of a claim (each of a Field of Industrial Application and a Problem to be Solved has to be the same as each other between the claims before the amendment and the claims after the amendment)
(iii) Correction of a clerical error
(iv) Overcoming unclarity