Strategies for Drafting and Prosecuting Invention by Diversion Patent Application in China: A Case Study of Clean Technology

摘要

For clean technology enterprises, obtaining patent rights is not only a way to protect innovation, but also the first step in deploying a patent strategy. Much of today's clean technology is derived from and built upon technical advancements from other industries. New uses of known processes, called "invention by diversion " in the China Patent Law, will face big challenges when we seekpatent protection for them in China. This article discusses how patent law in China attempts to determine invention by diversion, and suggests strategies to overcome non-novelty rejections and non-inventive step rejections in clean technology patenting.