Revisions to the Examination Guidelines for Patent and Utility Model in Japan

On June 25, 2026, the Japan Patent Office (JPO) published revisions to the Examination Guidelines for Patent and Utility Model in Japan. The revised Guidelines and the accompanying Examination Handbook apply to examinations conducted on or after July 1, 2026. They clarify or revise the treatment of inventive step, amendments introducing disclaimers, divisional applications based on foreign language written applications, corrections of mistranslation, applications filed on the same date for identical inventions, and applicant identity for purposes of the secret prior art provision. This article explains the principal revisions and their practical implications, with particular attention to Japanese translations and divisional filing strategies.