Revised Korean Design Act regulations entered into force on 1 January 2010. They apply to all design applications filed on or after that date.

The main changes are:

1. The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) is now also accepting three-dimensional image drawings. These may be filed in DWG (Drawing), DWF (Design Web Format) and 3DS (3D Studio) formats. Two-dimensional drawings are still accepted.

2. The "orthogonal projection" requirement has been dropped.

3. Classification system have been amended.

4. The number of categories of articles eligible for unexamined design applications have been increased from 6 to 10.

Source: KIPO's official website (only in Korean):

http://www.law.go.kr/LSW/lsSc.do?menuId=0&p1=&query=%EB%94%94%EC%9E%90%EC%9D%B8&x=0&y=0

Relating to the new Chinese Patent Law, the Civil Procedure Law and other legal texts applicable in infringement cases, these new guidelines clarify issues such as the protection scope of invention and utility models, the principles for determining infringement of a design right, the application of prior art defence and prior use defence. They entered into force on 1 January 2010.

See also: http://www.sipo.gov.cn/sipo2008/yw/2009/200912/t20091229_486452.html (currently Chinese only).

The English website of the SPC is here: http://en.court.gov.cn/.

 

The Chinese text of the guidelines can be found on the Supreme People's Court (SPC) website at: http://www.court.gov.cn/sfjs/show.php?file_id=140350.

The Taiwan Patent Office (TIPO) has its own set of procedures based on the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) system to accelerate the speed of patent examination. Although Taiwan is currently not part of any PPH agreements with other patent offices, applicants can now submit documents relating to applications recently published or soon to be published in other countries to TIPO in order to help speed up the examination procedure. Following a one-year trial period, TIPO has now introduced a number of amendments to its accelerated procedure. These amendments entered into force on 1 January 2010.

For more information about the amendments to the accelerated examination procedure, see this notice on TIPO's English website: http://www.tipo.gov.tw/ch/News_NewsContent.aspx?NewsID=4269

Revised Implementing Regulations to the new Chinese Patent Law, which entered into force on 1 October 2009, have been approved by the State Council. Published on 9 January 2010, the regulations deal in more detail with specific aspects of the Patent Law, including SIPO's new "confidentiality" or "secrecy" examination, which has to be requested by applicants for inventions made in China before they can file abroad.If the applicant receives no notification of a secrecy examination within four months from filing the request, he may file abroad. Where required, the secrecy examination will be completed within two months.  

The regulations also include details of filing requirements, especially for designs, which from now on are required to include a brief explanation. Furthermore, applicants will no longer have to pay maintenance fees.

More information about the Implementing Regulations is available on the SIPO website at: http://www.sipo.gov.cn/sipo2008/yw/2009/201001/t20100119_488002.html

(currently in Chinese only).