Report

Chapter 1 : Standard Patent System (64 submissions received)
1. What benefits will an OGP system bring to Hong Kong? Will an OGP system promote local innovation and enhance patent quality?
thinks there will be a decrease in patent quality unless there is a substantial
investment of time and resources in pursuing an OGP system, which would be better
spent for other purposes.
Both HKITMP and APAA highlight that due to costs associated with patent
examination process and increasing backloads at most of the major patent
examination offices, there is an international trend to move away from local original
examination. Examples of this trend as mentioned by HKITMP and APAA
include:
(a) allowing grant of a patent in one recognised substantive examining jurisdiction
to be recognised in another (often smaller) jurisdiction (“modified
examination”);
(b) requiring local patent practitioners to submit search results and examination
results of related applications in other countries to the local patent office (with
serious penalties for failure to do so) so that the local examiners can review the
assessment results regarding the substantive validity of the related patent
applications in other jurisdictions;
(c) examining patent applications based on search results and/or examination
results of corresponding applications in other jurisdictions, e.g. PPH
arrangements between different jurisdictions;
(d) an increasing reliance on “International Search Reports” and “International
Preliminary Opinion on Patentability” issued during the international phase in
a patent application under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (“PCT”) system by
patent examination authorities in other jurisdictions;
(e) reliance on search results and background information from prosecution in
foreign jurisdictions; and
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