According to the revised Patent Law that will be enforced from March 1, 2017, anyone can cancel a patent registration by submitting a ground for cancellation based on a prior art literature within 6 months after patent registration (registered on or after March 1, 2017).  As the system for request for cancellation of a patent is introduced, the existing regulation for a trial for patent invalidation that can be filed by anyone within 3 months after patent registration has been deleted.  On the other hand, an interested person can demand a trial for patent invalidation at any time.

Also, for the sake of prompt and simplified procedures, one can make a request for patent cancellation only in a case of violation of novelty, an inventive step and/or the First-to-File rule, and can submit a document that has not been cited in the process of examination, as a prior art.  Additionally, the revised Utility Model Law that will be enforced from March 1, 2017 also includes the same revision.

(Effective from March 1, 2017)