Although the “Guidelines on Inspection of Patent Official Files” had been amended twice in 2000 and 2004 respectively since its first promulgation in 1994, yet inspection on an official file for opposition and invalidation cases was still restricted to the parties concerned and an interested third party, and this measure has long been criticized. Such being the circumstances, Taiwan government now amends the “Guidelines on Inspection of Patent Official Files” in accordance with the related provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act, Act of Government Information Publication, and Documentation Act. The Guidelines were announced by the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) on October 29, 2009 and became effective on the same date.
The highlights of the Guidelines are summarized as follows:
- Any person may apply for inspection of the official files on a laid-open or published patent application, and on a decided opposition case, invalidation case, correction case, patent term extension case or compulsory licensing case, or a finished technical evaluation report on a utility model patent.
- For those patent applications not yet laid-open nor published, no matter pending in examination or after a decision is made, the official files could be inspected only by the Applicant himself.
- For those cases of invalidation, correction, patent term extension, compulsory licensing, or technical evaluation report of a utility model patent which are still pending for examination, the official files could be inspected by the Applicant himself or an interested third party.
- As for the patent documents stored in the electronic form, the document inspection will be provided, in principle, by image or photocopy thereof.
