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II. [TW] Amendments to Article 17, 28 of Enforcement Rules of Patent Act Have Been Effective from May 1, 2023
I. The Taiwan Intellectual Property Office announced the overview of patent and trademark applications accepted in 2022
In 2022, the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) accepted 72,059 patent applications, a slight decrease of 0.8%. Among them, invention applications (50,242 cases) increased by 2%; utility model applications (14,662 cases) and design applications (7,155) both decreased by 7%.
There were 19,400 natives’ invention applications, a slight decrease of 0.8%; 13,669 new utility model applications, an annual decrease of 6%, and 3,411 design applications, a decrease of 3%, but the decline rates were all converged compared with those of 2021.
The number of foreigners’ invention applications was 30,842, an increase of 4%; the number of utility model and design patent applications was 993 and 3,744, respectively, a decrease of 21% and 10%.
In terms of trademarks, there were 122,320 categories trademark registration applications (94,778 cases) in our country, of which 74,326 cases were filed for natives, an increase of 1%; 20,452 cases were filed for foreigners, a decrease of 9%.
Among the main categories of trademark registration applications filed for natives, the 35th category (advertising, business operation, etc.) has the greatest number of applications (15,220 cases); besides, due to the epidemic, categories 41 (education, entertainment), such as on-line shopping, remote technology and video games, and category 9 (Computers and technology products, etc.) grew by 7.5% and 2.0%, respectively. For trademark application filed for foreigners, category 9 (computer and technological products, etc.) has the greatest number of applications (4,493 cases).
References
Hyperlink：Taiwan intellectual property office
Lisa Lee
Patent Paralegal of RichIP Group
II. Amendments to Article 17, 28 of Enforcement Rules of Patent Act Have Been Effective from May 1, 2023
Amendments to Article 17, 28 of the Enforcement Rules of the Patent Act have become effective from May 1, 2023. A summary of the key points is presented as follows:
- If a biological material has been deposited in a depository designated by a foreign country in its territory with which Taiwan recognizes the effects of deposits based on reciprocity, documents issued by the depository must include a viability statement (Article 17, Paragraph 6 of the amended Enforcement Rules).
- Applicants are required to attach a marked document indicating differences/changes in the divisional application if the specification of the divisional application is not the same as that of the parent application (Article 28, Paragraph 3 of the amended Enforcement Rules).
References
Hyperlink：Regulatory Notice of the Intellectual Property Office, Ministry of Economic Affairs
Haw-Wei Pong
Patent Counselor of RichIP Group
III. Forecast correction: Article 4 and Article 10 of the Approval Measures for the Extension of the Patent Term
In order to simplify the administrative procedures for examining the extension of the patent term, the draft amendment to the approval method for the extension of the patent term was announced on February 7, 2023.When an applicant applies for an extension of the patent term, if the applicant submit the audit data of the domestic and foreign clinical trial period that is confirmed by the competent authority of the central target industry of pharmaceuticals (Food and Drug Administration of the Ministry of Health and Welfare) as required for the issuance of drug licenses; since the audit data has been reviewed and confirmed by the Food and Drug Administration of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, therefore, the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office can use it as an identification standard for extending the patent term, and in the future, the current administrative procedure of submitting the information submitted by the applicant to the Food and Drug Administration of the Ministry of Health and Welfare for confirmation can be exempted.
References
Hyperlink：Regulatory Notice of the Intellectual Property Office, Ministry of Economic Affairs
Hyperlink：draft amendment explaination and clause comparison table
Lisa Lee
Patent Paralegal of RichIP Group