[Taiwan] Amendments to Part I of the Patent Examination Guidelines - Effective Date: December 1, 2022

[ February 23, 2023 (1) ] >Back
The TIPO announced the amendment of Chapters 1, 3 to 8, 14, 17, 19, and 20 of Part I, titled “Formality Examination and Patent Right Management” of the Patent Examination Guidelines – the main highlights of which are as follows:

I. Chapter 1 - Procedures for Filing Patent Applications and Related Patent Matters
The revisions made to "1.2.4 Signatures for Electronic Documents" to state that the signee only needs to provide a form of signature (e.g. signature, stamp, or electronic signature) that matches the signature on application documents.

II. Chapter 2 – Patent Applicant
The revisions made to “2.2 Foreign Applicant” indicate that in case the applicant’s name could not be determined as a “legal entity”, the applicant would be requested to provide certification, or its representative should specify the legal basis for the establishment of legal entity.

III. Chapter 3 – Patent Applicant
In accordance with the adjustments made to procedural examination, revisions have been made to “3.1 Inventor Change,” “4.1 Applicant Name or Title Change,” “4.5 Inventor Name Change,” and case studies have been included for better understanding of the principle of examination.

The revisions also specify that “rectification of inconsistencies on documents submitted with applications” does not fall under this category (change filing information).

IV. Chapter 5 – Filing Date
The revisions made to “1.1 Application” stipulate the cause for decisions on postponement of filing date clearly. Three relevant scenarios were also listed as “Entity Change,” “Change of Applicants (addition),” “Change of Applicants (decrease).”

V. Chapter 7 – Patent Priority and Grace Period
Examples of incorrect priority documents were added to “1.5 Documentation and Submission Timelines for Priority.”

VI. Chapter 8 - Deposit of Biological Materials
The revisions made to “4. Documentation for Deposit of Biological Materials” stipulate that the application must include viability information as required documentation if the depository is not an “international depositary authority (IDA) under the Budapest Treaty”.

VII. Chapter 19 – Change of Patent Rights
Revisions of “6. Recordation of Pledge Establishment” and “6.2 Requisite Application Documents” were made in accordance with changes to Article 67 of the Enforcement Rules of the Patent Act announced on October 20, 2022.

IIX. Other Revisions
Revisions to all other chapters were made in accordance with the relevant revisions to official regulations and procedural examination.

Source: https://www.tipo.gov.tw/en/cp-282-916741-ea391-2.html