Newsletter
NO EXTENSION OF PAYMENT DEADLINES FOR TRADEMARK REGISTRATION FEES, PATENT CERTIFICATE FEES, OR PATENT ANNUITIES
Article 51 Paragraph 1 of the Patent Act provides that after the Patent Authority has rendered a decision to grant a patent, the applicant should pay the patent certificate fee and one year's pat-ent annuity within three months following the date on which notice of the decision was served; if the fees are not paid within that period, the granted patent right shall have been nonexistent from the beginning. The Trademark Act contains similar provisions regarding non-payment of trademark registration fees.
In a 2007 judgment regarding a patent applica-tion, the Taipei High Administrative Court noted that the proviso to Article 17 Paragraph 1 of the Patent Act provides that if a party fails to com-plete a procedure within a designated time period or fails to pay fees before a deadline, the Patent Authority should nevertheless accept the pro-cedure or payment if the party corrects the omission before the Patent Authority has ren-dered a decision. However, the court held that this provision, contained in the chapter of the Act entitled "General Provisions", is in the nature of a general principle, and if another chapter of the Act contains a different specific provision, the specific provision should take precedence. The first part of Article 51 Paragraph 1 provides that after a decision is rendered to grant a patent in respect of an invention, the applicant should pay the certificate fee and the first year's patent an-nuity within three months following the date of service of the notice of the decision, and that the granted patent shall not be published until such fees have been paid. The latter part of Article 51 Paragraph 1 further provides that if the fees are not paid within the above period, no publication shall be made, and defines the legal effect of such nonpayment: that the patent right shall have been nonexistent from the beginning. Therefore the three-month period envisaged under Article 51 is an invariable statutory period. If it is ex-ceeded, then unless conditions exist as defined by Article 17 Paragraph 2 of the Act for rein-statement, the patent right should be deemed never to have existed.