カテゴリー: 英語

Relief for the procedures affected by COVID-19

Posted on by YoshieOgasawara

On April 3, 2020, the Japan Patent Office announced remedies for pending applications and trial proceedings for the new coronavirus COVID-19 issue.
Among them, we put together items on which we should focus as listed below:

Procedures to which relief measures can be applied when conducting prescribed procedures within two months (valid for only within one year after the lapse of the prescribed period, statements of the grounds for restoration are required):
Submission of translation of foreign language application
Request for examination of application
Submission of translation of patent application in foreign language.

Procedures to which relief measures can be applied as soon as it becomes available (valid for only within six months after the lapse of the prescribed period, statements of the grounds for restoration are required):
Submission of a document pertaining to the procedure for an international application under PCT.

(For more information, see https://www.jpo.go.jp/e/news/koho/saigai/covid19_procedures.html)

Unless really necessary, it is not recommended relying on this temporal procedure since extra cost are needed.