The important theory of invariant regions in reaction-diffusion equations has only restricted applications because of its strict requirements on both the reaction terms and the regions. The concept of weakly invariant regions was introduced by us to admit wider reaction-diffusion systems. In this paper we first extend the L∞ estimate technique of semilinear parabolic equations of Rothe to the more general case with convection terms, and then propose more precise criteria for the bounded weakly invariant regions. We illustrate, by three model examples, that they are very convenient for establishing the global existence of solutions for reaction-diffusion systems, especially those from ecology and chemical processes.