Article 47 Paragraph 1 of the Patent Act, amended and promulgated on February 2, 2003, stipulates that “For reexamination, the Specific Patent Agency shall assign a patent examiner who did not participate in the examination of the concerned patent application to conduct reexamination and render a written decision.”

The reexamination procedure, with the nature of review, is to reopen the original examination procedure. In addition, the Specific Patent Agency shall assign a patent examiner who did not participate in the examination of the concerned patent application. Accordingly, the Specific Patent Agency can examine cases de novo during the reexamination procedure without being restricted to those contents or file wrappers which was considered or referred to in the initial examination. If the examiner of reexamination finds prior art which wasn’t referred to during initial examination in the search, the examiner can reject the patent application based on it.

In addition, the applicant can request amendment of the patent specifications (including claim(s)) and submit arguments during the reexamination. Based on the new specifications or claim(s), the examiner of reexamination can search and examine the patentability again. The decision’s reasoning does not need to be the same as the initial examination’s.

Although the reasoning of the initial examination is different from that of the reexamination in this case, the legitimacy of the reexamination (the original decision) is not affected.

Reexamination、Re-searching