Japan has restricted multi-multi claims by a Ministerial Order amendment, effective from April 1, 2022. Applicants for patent and utility models have been given warnings by the Japan Patent Office when filing applications.
Those who have filed applications on or after April 1 are also advised to review their application for multi-multi claims in order to avoid unnecessary rejection. This can be done by changing the multi-multi claim into a dependent claim that is dependent on a single claim.
The order refers to “claims that selectively cite two or more other claims and claims that selectively cite the citations of two or more other claims.” The term "Multi-Multi Claim" as restricted by the revised Ministerial Ordinance means "any dependent claim that refers to more than one other claim in the alternative ("multiple dependent claim") which depends from any other multiple dependent claim."
The purpose behind this move is to bring about international harmonization and to reduce the burden of examination processing and monitoring by third parties.
The Japanese authorities have also provided a virtual tool that will be launched to check whether there are such claims included within the scope of claims.
This amendment applies only to patent applications filed after the enforcement of the Patent Act. It does not apply to those applications made before the date of enforcement, divisional applications, and Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications which have an international fling date before the effective date and those which enter the national phase in Japan after the effective date.