By Ignacio Sanchez Echagüe --
The Argentine Patent Office (Instituto Nacional de la Propiedad Industrial, INPI) has issued Regulation No. 147/2010, which restricts the ability of applicants to file divisional applications once substantive examination has begun.
The regulation, which went into effect on July 16, 2010, allows applicants to file divisional applications until notice of substantive examination has been served. No divisional applications will be allowed thereafter, unless they are made in response to a request from the Argentine Patent Office. Once substantive examination has begun, if the examiner finds that the application has more than one object, the applicant will be requested to divide it within 30 days; should the applicant fail to do so, the application will be deemed as having been abandoned. In all cases, the basic application must be alive and pending.
This new regulation modifies the prior practice of the Argentine Patent Office, which allowed applicants to file divisional applications at any time during prosecution up to the final decision of the main application.
Regulation No. 147/2010 raises concerns as it may unlawfully restrict patent rights, thus providing grounds for challenge.
Ignacio Sanchez Echagüe [[email protected]] is an attorney with Marval, O'Farrell & Mairal in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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