Pre-grant submission in Japan

Rule 13bis(1) of the Implementing Regulation to the Japan Patent Act provides that any person may submit for consideration of a patent application any documents such as patent publication and other printed publication, if such submission is made during the pendency of the patent application.

Such submission will be included in the record and any person may review it via internet or request photocopies at the JPO.

Items (i) to (iv) of Rule 13bis(1) requires that the submission should be related to the following issues:
(i)          The application does not meet the requirements of Art.17bis(3) (amendment: introducing new matter that exceeds the original disclosure).
(ii)         The application does not meet the requirement of Art.29(1) (novelty: the invention was publicly known, publicly worked, described in a distributed publication or made available to the public through telecommunication line in Japan or a foreign country before filing the application).
             The application does not meet the requirement of Art.29bis (the invention was described in a previously-filed and later-published Japanese patent application: similar to current 35U.S.C. § 102(e) and new § 102(a)(2)). If the previously-filed and later-published application is a PCT application filed in a language other than Japanese, Japanese translations of application documents must have been filed within 30 months (2 months extension available) from the priority date in order to be eligible as an Art.29bis prior art.
             The application does not meet the requirement of Art.39(1) to (4) (double patenting: claimed invention is the same as that of an application filed on or before the filing date of the present application).
(iii)        The application does not meet the requirement of Art.36(4) or items (i) to (iii) of Art.36(6) (enablement, IDS, support, clarity, and conciseness).
(iv)         The content of Japanese translations of application documents exceeds the disclosure of the original foreign language application documents.

Rule 13bis(2) provides that the submission must be in writing with the form 20.

Rule 13bis(3) provides that a seal (corresponds to signature) is not required.

Rule 13bis(4) provides that the submission may be done anonymously.

Rule 13ter provides similar provisions for a patent after grant.

Consequently, you may file the submission any time after publication of a patent application. But, please note that the examiner is not at all obliged to consider the submission. If the submission helps the examiner, he or she will use it. Moreover, no deference will be given to JPO examination in a later proceeding even in an invalidation trial at the JPO (not to mention in the court).