Amendment of Taiwan’s Patent Examination Guidelines and Patent Regulations

01/01/2013

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The amendment to the ROC (Taiwan) Patent Act and its Enforcement Rules took effect on 1 January 2013. To guide the handling of patent-related applications and matters under the amendment to the Patent Act and its Enforcement Rules, Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has amended most part of the Patent Examination Guidelines and has published the amended Patent Examination Guidelines up to 1 January 2013 (as listed below).

Volume Topic Date of Publication Vol. 1 Procedural Examination and Patent Right Administration (22 chapters in total) 13 December 2012 Vol. 2 Substantive Examination of Invention Patent Applications (15 chapters in total) 25 October 2012 (Chapters 1-10 only) Vol. 3 Substantive Examination of Design Patent Applications (11 chapters) 23 November 2012 Vol. 4 Formality Examination of Utility Model Patent Applications (1 chapter) 21 November 2012 Vol. 5 Invalidation Actions (2 chapters) 9 November 2012

The IPO also amended or are in the process of amending other patent regulations and new patent forms to support the implementation of the amended Patent Act, which mainly include the following (up to 1 January 2013):

Patent Regulations and Patent Forms Date of Publication Regulations Governing Filing Patent Applications with Foreign-language Patent Specifications, Claims and Drawings 3 July 2012 Regulations Governing Patent E-Filing 3 July 2012 Regulations Governing Bio Material Deposit 4 December 2012 New Patent Application Forms 13 December 2012 Application Forms for Converting into Partial Design Applications, Converting of Associated Design Patent Applications to Derivative Design Applications or to Design Patent Applications 13 December 2012 Regulations Governing Patent Term Extension Being amended

The amendment of Patent Act discussed above involves significant changes. As to the actual changes of the IPO's practices, we will closely monitor and keep our readers informed timely.