How should you draft a Chinese patent application for a
computer program invention? Stephen Yang of Peksung Intellectual
Property offers some prosecution solutions
The prosecution of computer program patent applications in China
has been difficult. Chinese examiners are very meticulous in the
format of claim drafting. This article will explain the current
Chinese practice and give advice on the drafting of claims and
descriptions in such applications.
According to the Guidelines for Patent Examination, a claim of a
computer program patent application can be drafted as a method
claim or apparatus claim. In the apparatus claim, each component
should completely correspond to each step in the computer program
flow, or each step in the method claim reflecting the computer
program flow. Each component in the apparatus claim will be
regarded as function modules and the apparatus claim, which is
defined by such a group of function modules, is regarded as the
function
