ACCELERATED EXAMINATION
Taiwan’s Intellectual Property Office has recently introduced an accelerated examination programme for patent applications that have already been submitted in other jurisdictions. Joy Pan and Grace Shao explain.
To facilitate the prosecution of patent applications in Taiwan, the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) has put in place the so-called Accelerated Examination Program (AEP), which allows an applicant to voluntarily submit examination opinions already issued in counterpart foreign applications. Like the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) initiatives currently implemented by many foreign patent offices, one purpose of the AEP is to exploit relevant work already conducted by other patent offices in order to reduce the burden of search and examination in Taiwanese applications.
Recently revised in January 2010 aſter a trial period of one year, the current AEP distinguishes three different scenarios under which accelerated examination can be requested in an application for an invention patent: a counterpart foreign application has already been allowed, an official notice of rejection has been issued in a counterpart foreign application that is not yet allowed and there is a need for commercial practice of the patented subject matter by the applicant. Tis article will examine these different scenarios and discuss certain features of the AEP that are distinctive from other PPH programmes.
Counterpart foreign applications
If a counterpart foreign application has been permitted, the applicant can request accelerated examination of the Taiwan application by submitting a copy of the notice of allowance and all examination opinions issued in the foreign application. If the foreign application has already been granted a patent, a copy of the foreign patent can substitute for the notice of allowance.
www.worldipreview.com
World Intellectual Property Review March/April 2010
23
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