SIPO Releases Patent Examination Prioritization Measures

On April 7, the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) released the Administrative Measures on the Prioritized Examination of Patents(Draft for Comments) with a deadline of May 6. The Measures will replace the Administrative Measures on Prioritized Examination of Invention Patent Applications released by SIPO in 2012.

The Draft Measures now include prioritized examination of utility model and industrial design patent applications, in addition to invention patents. Of note for USITO is Article 3, which outlines the cases subject to prioritized examination, Article 8 which lays out procedural requirements, and Article 9 which describes acceptable search reports.