Restriction of Multi-Multi Dependent Claims in Patent and Utility Model applications has come into effect on April 1, 2022 which is applied to an application whose filing date is on or after April 1, 2022.

Because the term for filing a request for examination expires 3 years from the filing date of the application, every application which is due for filing a request for examination should ensure compliance with the Requirements regarding Restriction of Multi-Multi Dependent Claims.

The possible problem is that such Multi-Multi Dependent Claims will not be examined with respect to substantive patentability requirements such as novelty, inventive step and the like, and the next OA can be a final one, in response to which the extent and scope of allowable amendments will be strictly limited to narrowing the claimed invention without addition of new issue(s).

According to what we have heard, there are actual cases where a first OA was issued and only some of the claims — such as just 5 out of more than 50 claims — were substantively examined.  The Requirements Restriction of Multi-Multi Dependent Claims is really user unfriendly for now.

For more details regarding Restriction of Multi-Multi Dependent Claims, please click below.

https://www.jpo.go.jp/e/system/patent/shinsa/multimulticlaims.html