Granted patents have the same level of inventive step? A new approach to distinguish patent protection based on the level of inventive step Online publication date: Fri, 31-Oct-2014
by Yoshitoshi Tanaka; Daphne Jue Wang
International Journal of Intellectual Property Management (IJIPM), Vol. 4, No. 4, 2011
Abstract: According to recent surveys, there exist numerous patent applications in countries, such as Japan and the USA. Out of the total granted patents, there are so many patents which are not utilised on the product and its market. In this research, we analysed the different levels of inventive step or non-obviousness especially focusing on the difference of the ratio of office actions made by EPO and JPO between European enterprises and Japanese enterprises whether the office actions include the prior arts related to the said invention filed as a patent application. Under the current patent law, all patents granted have the same level of protection. Considering the basicness or improvementness of patents, it is proposed based on this research to distinguish the level of inventive step or non-obviousness together with the level of protection, which gives big impact on legal structures together with how the patent law should be amended in the future.
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