Photo: wikipedia.org
In the recent years, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic has archived a good reputation of establishing numerous positive mutual economic strategies with two of strongest nations in Asia – China and Japan, and in order to further facilitate its economic relationship with these countries, Laos has gone over many important agreements especially in the field of Intellectual Property.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Intellectual Property Cooperation between China and Laos, allows valid Chinese patents to request decisions for expedited examination for those patent applications which filed with the Laos Department of Intellectual Property (DIP).
Condition to Validate a Chinese patent in Laos
The application file in the designated country shall share the same earliest priority date or filing date with the original application ((including PCT patent application).
The claims in the Laos patents application must be the same as the set of claims filed in the Chinese patent, thus make any addition or change to the claims that were the considered not as the same to be invalid.
The required documents: (1) request form for validation of patent application; (2) Copy of patent document and certificate of patent register issued by the CNIPA; (3) Patent documents in Laotian; (4) the amendment to the claims and a claims correspondence table (if any).
Patent Examination
Once the request is approved for granting, there will no formal notice from the DIP until the Decision of Grating is issued. The request for accelerated patent decision should be filed after the expiration of a 32-month period starting from the filing date or the priority date.
The Cooperation for facilitating Patent Grant (CPG) of the Laos-related patent application between Japan and Laos, allows applicants whose patents granted by the Japan Patent Office can request accelerated decisions on patents in Laos with the Department of Intellectual Property (DIP).
Condition to Validate a Japanese patent in Laos
The patent application filed with the DIP under the CPG shall share the same earliest priority date or filing date with the JPO application ((including PCT patent application).
Claims filed in Laos application must be same with the JPO application and any claim which introduces a new/different category of claims to those claims granted in the JPO patent application is not considered as being the same.
The required documents: (1) request form for validation of patent application; (2) Copy of patent document and certificate of patent register issued by the JPO; (3) Patent documents in Laotian; (4) the amendment to the claims and a claims correspondence table (if any).
The claim correspondence table need to state the deleted claim(s) in the granted JPO patent application and compare them with the claims in the DIP application.
Author: Thang Quang/Paralegal
Source: PATON CO. LTD
