Question:
A Chinese application based on a Japanese application corresponds to the text originally filed with the JPO. However, amendments during Japanese prosecution mean that its claims no longer correspond to those allowed in Japan. China offers limited opportunities for voluntary amendment. If three months have passed since receipt of the Notice of Entry into Substantive Examination, how can the applicant make the Chinese claims sufficiently correspond to the Japanese claims for a PPH request?
Answer:
After that three-month period, the examiner may still accept a voluntary amendment deleting claims or narrowing their scope. The applicant may therefore submit such an amendment to make the Chinese claims sufficiently correspond to the claims allowed by the JPO.