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Manual for Substantive Examination Procedure

CHAPTER I – INTRODUCTION

1.1 The present Manual for the examination of patent applications has been written with the aim of providing a comprehensive reference guide for both IPO patent examiners and the general public on matters of patent law and interpretation. The Manual gives instructions as to the practice and procedure to be followed in the various aspects of the substantive examination of Philippine patent applications in accordance with Republic Act No. 8293 (“IP-code”) and the implementing Rules and Regulations (“IRR”). They are addressed primarily to the staff in the IPO, but it is hoped that they will also be of assistance to the parties to the proceedings and  patent practitioners.

1.2 The Manual is intended to cover normal occurrences. It is therefore to be considered only as general instruction. The application of this Manual to individual patent application is the responsibility of the examining staff and they may depart from these instructions in exceptional cases. Nevertheless, the parties can expect the Office to act as they are revised. It should be noted also that the Manual does not constitute legal provisions. For the ultimate authority on practice in the IPO, it is necessary to refer firstly to the IPO-code and the IRR.

2. Format

2.1 It will be noted that in this Manual, the text has been divided into Chapters, each sub-divided into numbered Sections which are further sub-divided into paragraphs. Cross-references to other paragraphs within this part are in a standard form quoting in each case the Chapter, Section and paragraph number (thus e.g., III, 6.5 means paragraph 6.5 in Section 6 of Chapter III).

2.2 Marginal references indicate the relevant Sections of the IPO-code or the relevant Rules of the IRR, which provide authority to what is stated. It is believed that such references avoid the need for extensive quotation from the IP-code and the IRR themselves.

2.3 In this part of the Manual, the term “examiner” is used to mean the Examiner entrusted with substantive examination.

2.4 In this part also, an attempt has been made to deal with the requirements of the application in earlier Chapters and to concentrate matters of procedure in Chapter VI. However, it has not always proved practicable to draw a hard and fast line between these aspects of the work.

3. Work at the Bureau of Patents

3.1 It is important that the various departments of the Office and various staff in the same department should not attempt to duplicate one another’s efforts. For example, the substantive examiner should.

not attempt to check the formalities work performed by his colleague

in the formality division. One of the purposes of the Manual is to make clear where the demarcations of the responsibility lie.

3.2 The attitude of the examiner is very important. He should always try to be constructive and be helpful. While it would of course be quite wrong for an examiner to over look any major deficiency in an application, he should have a sense of proportion and not to pursue unimportant objections. He should bear in mind that, subject to the requirements of the IP-code and the IRR, the drafting of the descriptions and claims of an application is the responsibility of the applicant or his representative.

3.3 It should hardly need stating that all patent applications, regardless of their country of origin should receive equal treatment.