Newsletter
PATENT AND TRADEMARK PRIORITY CLAIM PRACTICE
Since the Republic of China (Taiwan) is not a signatory to the Paris Convention, nationals from the ROC and those from other countries rely on " reciprocity" to mutually recognize priority claims made from each other. In the past, if an ROC national filing a patent application with the Irish Patents Office made a priority claim based on an ROC patent application, the Irish Patent Office would not recognize such priority claim. The ROC Intellectual Property Office has ac-tively taken up this issue through the relevant departments of the European Union Trade Di-rectorate General. As a result, the Irish Patent Office has now given its agreement to recognize such priority claims. An official letter from the Irish Patent Office stated that it would seek an amendment to Ireland’s Patent Act to explicitly provide that priority may be made on the basis of patent applications filed in any WTO member state. The Irish Patent Office would not refuse a priority claim solely on the ground that it was based on a Chinese Taipei patent or trademark application. The Intellectual Property Office announced the above on 1 November 2004 for information by the general public.