{"id":167,"date":"2017-11-26T07:00:32","date_gmt":"2017-11-26T07:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.lib.purdue.edu\/patents\/?p=167"},"modified":"2020-07-20T04:06:16","modified_gmt":"2020-07-20T04:06:16","slug":"procedural-issues-the-andean-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.purdue.edu\/patents\/2017\/11\/26\/procedural-issues-the-andean-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Procedural Issues: The Andean Community"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Under the Andean Community, the patent application may only relate to one invention or to a group of inventions so related as to constitute a single inventive concept. T<\/span>his is called \u201c<b>unity of invention<\/b>\u201d<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Requirements of an application under the Andean Community:<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The application for a patent shall be filed with the competent national office, and <\/span><b>no member country shall impose requirements of form on the patent application that are additional to or different from those provided for in the Decision.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It shall contain the following:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><b>The request<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">: this request shall be set down on a form, and shall contain:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A request that a patent be granted<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The name and address of the applicant<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The nationality or domicile of the applicant. Where the applicant is a legal entity, its place of incorporation shall be specified.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The name of the invention<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The name and domicile of the inventor where he is not the applicant<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Where applicable, the name and address of the legal representative of the applicant<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The signature of the applicant or of his legal representative; and<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Where applicable, the date, number and office of filing of any application for a patent or other title of protection that may have been filed or obtained abroad by the same applicant or his principal and that refers entirely or partly to the same invention as is claimed in the application field in the member country.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><b>The description: <\/b>it shall disclose the invention in a manner sufficiently clear and complete to be understood and for a person skilled in the corresponding technical field to be able to carry it out.\u00a0The description of the invention shall state the name of the invention and include the following information:\n<ul>\n<li>The technological sector to which the invention relates or applies;<\/li>\n<li>The previous technology known to the applicant that may be useful for understanding and examining the invention, and references to earlier documents and publications relating to the said technology;<\/li>\n<li>An account of the drawings, if any have been filed;<\/li>\n<li>A description of the best method known to the applicant of carrying out the invention or putting it into practice, with the use of examples and references to the drawings where the latter are relevant; and<\/li>\n<li>A mention of the way in which the invention meets the condition of industrial applicability, if this is not clear from the description or the nature of the invention.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><b>One or more drawings<\/b>, where necessary for the understanding of the invention. Those shall be considered an <b>integral part of the description<\/b>.<\/li>\n<li>When the invention <strong>relates to a product or process involving biological material<\/strong>, and the invention cannot be described in such a way as to be understood and carried out by a person skilled in the technical field, the description shall be completed with a <strong>deposit of the said material<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>The deposit shall be made not later than on the filing date of the application in the member country or, where applicable, on the filing date of the application the priority of which is claimed.<\/li>\n<li>Deposits effected with an international depositary authority recognized under the Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Microorganisms for the Purposes of Patent Procedure (1977), or with another institution recognized by the national office competent in that connection, shall be considered valid.\n<ul>\n<li>In such a case, the description shall state the name and address of the depositary institution, the date of deposit and the deposit number assigned to it by the institution. The deposit of biological material shall be valid for the purposes of the grant of a patent only if it is made in such a way that any interested party may obtain samples of the material not later than the 18-months period given for the file to be declared public.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><b>One or more claims<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">: the claims shall define the subject matter to be protected by the patent. They shall be clear and concise and entirely supported by the description.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">They may be either independent, when it defines the subject matter to be protected without reference to another earlier claim; or dependent, when it refers to two or more earlier claims.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>The abstract: <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">it shall consist of a summary of the technical disclosure contained in the patent application. The abstract shall <strong>serve only for the purposes of technical information<\/strong> and shall in no way influence the interpretation of the scope of protection afforded by the patent.<\/span><\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Such powers of attorney as may be necessary<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Proof of payment of the prescribed fees<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">And, where applicable:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A copy of the <\/span><b>access contract <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">where the product or processes for which a patent is sought have been obtained or developed from <\/span><b>genetic resources <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">or products derived therefrom of which any of the member countries is the country of origin; and\/or<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A copy of the document accrediting the <\/span><b>licensing or the authorization of the use of the traditional knowledge <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">of the indigenous, Afro-American or local communities of member countries where the products or processes for which protection is sought have been obtained or developed from such knowledge of which any of the member of its amendments and implementing regulations as are in force; and\/or<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The certificate of deposit of biological material; and\/or<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A copy of the document attesting the assignment of the right to the patent by the inventor to the applicant or to his principal.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In case that the competent national office has<b> reasonable doubt concerning some element of the application <\/b>in the course of the processing of the application<b>, it may demand that the necessary evidence be filed<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p><b>Date of receipt of the application: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">the filing date thereof, provided that, at the time of receipt, it contains at least (i) a mention that the grant of a patent is applied for, (ii) the particulars identifying the applicant or the person filing the application or which enable the competent national office to communicate with that person, (iii) a description of the invention, (iv) drawings if they are relevant and (v) proof of payment of the prescribed fees.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Failure to comply with any of the requirements specified above shall cause the competent national office to regard the application as not having been accepted for processing, and <\/span><b>no filing date shall be assigned to it<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Changes to applications<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>What if I need to amend my application?<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The applicant for a patent may request that his application be amended at any time during the processing thereof. The amendment <\/span><b>may not involve any broadening of the protection <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">that would have been accorded to the disclosure contained in the initial application. Any clerical error may be corrected in the same way.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Conversion of an application:<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">At any time in the processing of the application, the applicant may request that it <\/span><b>be converted into an application for a utility model patent<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which shall only be allowed when the nature of the invention permits. It may be filed only once, and the converted application shall retain the filing date of the original application.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The conversion of the application may be suggested by the Competent office too, at any stage in the processing thereof, and may also charge an additional fee for the filing of conversion requests.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In that case, the applicant may accept or reject the suggestion, on the understanding that processing of the application in respect of the type of rights originally applied for shall continue if it is rejected.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Division of an application:<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As it was mentioned before, a patent should only relate to one invention or to a group of inventions so related as to constitute a single inventive concept; which is called &#8220;<strong>unity of inventions<\/strong>&#8220;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">If a patent application does not fulfill this requirement, <\/span><b>it shall be dismissed<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. For this not to happen, the applicant may, at any stage in the processing, divide his application into two or more divisional applications, but <\/span><b>none of them may involve any broadening of the protection accorded to the disclosure contained in the original application<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The competent national office may require the applicant to divide the application if it does not fulfill the condition of unity of invention at any stage in the proceedings. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Towards the dates&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Every divisional application shall have the same filing date as the original application, and the same priority date where applicable.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Where multiple or partial priorities have been claimed, the applicant or the competent national office shall specify the priority date or dates corresponding to the subject matter that should be covered by each of the divisional applications.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">For the purposes of the division of an application, the applicant shall file such documents as may be necessary to make the corresponding divisional applications complete.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Merging of two or more applications:<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The applicant may, at any stage in the proceedings, merge two or more applications into one, but that <\/span><b>may not involve any broadening of the protection that would have been accorded to the disclosure contained in the initial applications.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Not merging shall be allowed where the merged application would include inventions that <\/span><b>do not meet the condition of unity of invention<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. The merged application shall have the same filing date and the same priority date or dates where applicable, as have been accorded to the subject matter contained in the initial applications.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Procedure up to grant:<\/h2>\n<p><b>Processing of the Application:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">After <\/span>30 days <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">following the filing date of the application, the competent national office shall examine whether it fulfills the conditions of form provided for in the Decision:<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p>If application does not fulfill the conditions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The office shall notify the applicant, so that he may meet those conditions within a period of two months following the date of notification. A party can request to extend that period once by an equal amount of time.\n<ul>\n<li>If he meets the conditions, procedure keeps going.<\/li>\n<li>If he fails to meet the conditions, the application shall be considered abandoned, and its priority shall be lost.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">If application <\/span>fulfills the conditions<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">,<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The file shall be <\/span>declared public<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">,<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">it is <\/span>inspected<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and the competent national office shall order <\/span>its publication<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, in a period of <\/span>18 months after the filing date of the application<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">After publication, <\/span>any person <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">with a legitimate interest <\/span>may file one reasoned opposition <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">contesting the patentability of the invention <\/span>within a period of 60 days<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. A party <\/span>can request an additional period of 60 days <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">for the substantiation of the opposition<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The opposition is <\/span>notified to the applicant<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, so that he may <\/span>present his arguments<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, submit documents or revise the claims or description of the inventions if he considers it relevant or convenient <\/span>within a <strong>period of 60 days<\/strong>. <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The competent national office can grant an <\/span>additional period of 60 days <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">if <\/span>requested by a party<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The applicant may <\/span>request publication of the application<span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> at <\/span>any time after the completion of the examination<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Within a <\/span>period of six months<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">,<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">the applicant shall <\/span>request that the invention be examined for patentability<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, <\/span>whether there is a filed opposition or not.\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">If that period <\/span>expires without the applicant\u2019s request<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the application shall <\/span>lapse<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The competent national office can find that the invention is <\/span>not patentable <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">or <\/span>does not comply <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">with one of the requirements of the Decision, which will be notified to the applicant for him to respond <\/span>within a period of 60 days<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and can be <\/span>extended<span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> once for a period of <\/span>30 additional days.\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">If the applicant <\/span>fails to respond <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">to the notification within the periods specified or if there are still <\/span>obstacles to grant in spite of <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">the response, the competent national office shall <\/span>refuse <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">the patent.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The competent national office <\/span>may solicit reports <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">from experts, from scientific technological bodies considered suitable or from other industrial property offices (if it fits), to have their opinion on the patentability of the invention. <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The competent national office can also <\/span>request the applicant to submit <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">some documents related with one or more filed foreign \u00a0applications <\/span>within a maximum period of three months. The documents requested by the competent national office may be:\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A copy of the application; of its findings on novelty and patentability; <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A copy of the patent or protection title given on the basis of that application; <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A copy of any judgement or decision by which the foreign application has been: <\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rejected,<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Denied, <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cancelled, or<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Invalidated<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">If the applicant <\/span>fails to submit <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">the documents requested, the competent national office shall <\/span>refuse <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">the patent.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">If <\/span>final examination is favorable<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, <\/span><strong>the patent shall be granted<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>After the Application:<\/h2>\n<h3>Acts after the grant:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The owner of the patent may ask the competent national office to <strong>amend the patent<\/strong> in order to reflect a change in the name, address, domicile or other particulars of the owner or inventor, or to alter or limit the scope of one or more of the claims. He may likewise request the correction of any clerical error in the patent. The dispositions about the amendment or correction of an application shall apply as appropriate.<\/span><\/li>\n<li>The owner of the patent may <strong>renounce<\/strong> to one or more claims of the patent or the patent as a whole in a declaration addressed to the competent national office. Renunciation shall be effective as from the date of receipt of the said declaration.<\/li>\n<li>The owners of a patent may <strong>divide<\/strong> it into <strong>two or more divisional patents<\/strong>. The provisions on the division of an application shall be applicable as appropriate.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The competent national office may provide for fees to be charged for acts performed after the grant of the patent.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Refusal, Lapse and Invalidity of the Patent:<\/h3>\n<p><b>Invalidity of the Patent:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The competent national authority shall decree the absolute invalidity of a patent at any time, either <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">ex officio<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> or at the request of any person, where:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The subject matter of the patent does not constitute an invention.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The invention does not fulfill the requirements of patentability.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The patent has been granted for a non-patentable invention, in the aforementioned terms (see Art. 20 &#8211; Dec. 486\/00).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The patent does not disclose the invention.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The claims included in the patent are not fully supported by the description.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The patent as granted contains broader disclosure than the original application which has the effect of extending the scope of protection.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Where applicable, a copy of the access contract has not been filed where the products or processes to which the patent application relates have been produced or developed with genetic resources or derived products of which any member countries is the country of origin.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Where applicable, a copy of the document evidencing the licensing or authorization of the use of traditional knowledge of the indigenous, afro-american or local communities of the member countries has not been filed where the products or processes for which protection is sought have been produced or developed on the basis of such knowledge of which one of the member countries is the country of origin<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The causative factors of absolute invalidity provided for in the national legislation on administrative acts are present.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Where the causes referred to above affect only one of the claims or parts of a claim, <strong>invalidity shall be declared only in respect of those claims<\/strong> or those parts of the claim, as the case may be.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The patent, the claim or the part of the claim that has been invalidated shall be <strong>deemed null and void<\/strong> as such as from the filing date of the patent application.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Relative invalidity: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">the defects in administrative acts that have not brought about absolute invalidity, shall result in relative invalidity. In such cases, the competent national authority shall declare invalidity within the following five years counted from the date of the grant of the patent, as provided in national legislation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Cancellation of a patent:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Where a patent has been granted to a person not entitled to such grant, the competent national authority may cancel a patent. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Who can brought an action for cancellation? <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The action for cancellation may only be brought by the person to whom the right to the patent belongs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Prescription Periods: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Five years following the date of grant of the patent, or two years following the date on which the person to whom that right belongs became aware of the exploitation of the invention in the country, whichever period expires first.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Arguments against the action for cancellation: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">the competent national authority ruling on a case of invalidity shall inform the owner of the patent so that he may present such arguments and submit such proof as he may consider fit.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">If that authority is the competent national office, the arguments and proof shall be submitted within the two months following notification. The person concerned may apply for an <strong>extension for two further months<\/strong> following notification <\/span><b>before the provided period expires<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">On the expiry of the aforementioned periods, the competent national office shall rule on the invalidity of the patent, and the parties shall be informed accordingly in a resolution.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The competent national authority may, where this is necessary for a ruling on the invalidity of a patent, request the owner of the patent to submit one or more of the following documents relating to the patent to which the proceedings themselves relate:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A copy of the foreign application wholly or partly to the same invention as that being examined<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A copy of the findings of novelty or patentability examinations carried out in relation to that foreign application<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A copy of the patent or other protection title that has been granted on the basis of that foreign application<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A copy of the patent or other protection title that has been granted on the basis of that foreign application<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A copy of any judgement or decision by which the foreign application has been rejected or denied<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A copy of any judgement or decision by which the patent or other protection title granted on the foreign application has been cancelled or invalidated.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Lapse of the patent:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In order to keep the patent in force or maintain a pending patent application, as the case may be, annual fees shall be paid as provided by the competent national office. Annual fees shall be paid annually in advance.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The due date of each annual fee shall be the last day of the month in which the application was filed. Two or more annual fees may be paid in advance.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">An annual fee may be paid within a six-months period of grace following the starting date of the corresponding annual period, provided that the prescribed surcharged is paid at the same time. During the period of grace, the patent or patent application shall remain in full force.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Failure to pay an annual fee under this provisions shall cause the patent or patent application to <\/span><b>lapse<\/b> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">automatically.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Under the Andean Community, the patent application may only relate to one invention or to a group of inventions so related as to constitute a single inventive concept. This is called \u201cunity of invention\u201d. Requirements of an application under the Andean Community: The application for a patent shall be filed with the competent national office, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8078,9029,7896,10621],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-andean-community","category-content","category-legal-systems","category-procedural-issues"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.purdue.edu\/patents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.purdue.edu\/patents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.purdue.edu\/patents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.purdue.edu\/patents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.purdue.edu\/patents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.purdue.edu\/patents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":183,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.purdue.edu\/patents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167\/revisions\/183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.purdue.edu\/patents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.purdue.edu\/patents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.purdue.edu\/patents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}