Cancer diseases have been one of the leading causes of human deaths worldwide. For the past 30 years, cancer ranked as the top cause of death in Taiwan. Previously, the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office（TIPO）conducted searches and analysis on cancer therapy patent filings in Taiwan from 2006 to 2015, with reference to the Cancer Moonshot Patent Data of USPTO in 2016, Derwent Innovation, and other data sets. TIPO found 6,619 patent filings in six major technical fields of cancer-related invention applications during the last ten years. Results are shown in the following table.
According to TIPO’s statistics, most cancer patent filings are in the field of Drugs and Chemistry（6083 cases）, followed by Diagnostic and Surgical Devices（680 cases）, Cells and Enzymes（540 cases）, Data Science（47 cases）, Food and Nutrition（52 cases）and Model Systems and Animals（33 cases）.
Overall, the core technique of cancer therapy innovation lies in the field of Drugs and Chemistry, and its top ten applicants include NOVARTIS（284 cases）, SANOFI AVENTIS（271 cases）, HOFFMANN LA ROCHE（255 cases）, ASTRAZENECA（195 cases）, GENENTECH（183 cases）, BAYER（161 cases）, BOEHRINGER INGELHEIM (141 cases）, ABBOTT（136 cases）, PFIZER（122 cases）, and SCHERING（102 cases）. Domestic applicants are led by ACADEMIA SINICA（59 cases）, NATIONAL HEALTH RESEARCH INSTITUTES（29 cases), NATIONAL TAIWAN UNIVERSITY（26 cases）, NATIONAL CHENG KUNG UNIVERSITY（24 cases）, CHINA MEDICAL UNIVERSITY（21 cases）, KAOHSIUNG MEDICAL UNIVERSITY（20 cases）, GOLDEN BIOTECHNOLOGY CORPORATION（20 cases）, INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH INSTITUTE（11 cases）, NATIONAL YANG MING UNIVERSITY（11 cases）, NATIONAL CHIAO TUNG UNIVERSITY（10 cases）, TAIPEI MEDICAL UNIVERSITY（10 cases）, NATIONAL TSING HUA UNIVERSITY（8 cases）, TAIWAN LIPOSOME CO. LTD.（6 cases）, and CHANG GUNG UNIVERSITY（6 cases）.
Foreign applicants are from the pharmaceutical sector, and domestic applicants are mostly from the academic and research sectors. Breast cancer, lung cancer, and colorectal cancer are listed as the three major cancer diseases for treatment, as filed in the invention applications by both foreign and domestic applicants. The fourth and fifth cancer deceases are lymphoma cancer and leukemia or blood cancer for foreign applicants, and liver cancer and prostate cancer for domestic applicants, respectively.
Notably, it is expressly stipulated in the Taiwan Patent Act that diagnostic, therapeutic, and surgical methods for the treatment of humans or animals are not patentable. However, the use of medical-related patents has not been prohibited. For an invention that involves a medical treatment method, the applicant can file the patent as a method of use. It is possible to obtain patent protection for medical uses which have an unpredictable or nonobvious effect. Furthermore, the patent term of an invention patent is 20 years from its application date, and the term can be extended up to 5 years for a pharmaceutical or medical patent to compensate for the time lost while obtaining market approval. The filing requirements of such extension have also been relaxed by TIPO in April of 2018. Currently, the average examination period by TIPO for a patent application relating to biotechnology, medicines or pharmaceuticals is 24 months, and its average time for first notification is 18 months, which should be shorter than most other developed countries. Also, AEP（Accelerated Examination Program）and PPH（Patent Prosecution Highway Program）are available for invention applications. In conclusion, TIPO has endeavored to provide incentives for applicants to file patent applications and obtain protection in Taiwan more quickly than other countries.
