ABSTRACT
The increasing volume of international trade has brought greater opportunities for patents to be exploited beyond national borders. Although cross-border trade has been increasing drastically, patent rights protection has not been able to extend beyond borders with the same vigour due to the fragmented global patent system. Once procedural examination rules are harmonised among a group of patent offices, such rules may be promoted to other countries by way of, for example, capacity-building, whereby these rules would be extended to, and adopted by, a wider range of national patent offices. China started to embark on the process of international patent rights harmonisation in 1985 when it became a Union member of the Paris Convention. Japan and China launched patent protection for the same reason, which was to enable technology transfer. Both countries’ patent law evolution is a journey of international patent rights harmonisation.
