A foreign applicant can file a Taiwan patent application of same invention that filed in a foreign country, including member states of the World Trade Organization (WTO) or countries that have a mutual recognition of priority with Taiwan, and claim its priority by stating the priority date and filing number, within 12 months after filing the foreign basic application (12 months also for a utility model application, or 6 months for a design application). In addition, the applicant needs to submit the original certified priority document within 16 months (same for a utility model application, or 10 months for a design application). This is a statutory time limit and cannot be extended. If the priority document is not submitted within the time limit, the priority claim shall be deemed not having been made.
The priority document stipulated in Taiwan shall be the original document issued and certified by the competent authority of the foreign country. If the applicant submits a photocopy of the certified priority document within the above time, Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) will notify the applicant to supplement the original copy of same document, otherwise the priority will be deemed as not claimed.
If there is an electronic priority exchange program (PDX) between the foreign competent authority and TIPO, then TIPO may deem the applicant has submitted the priority document. For example, the applicant can provide only the access code for a Japanese priority, or simply state “electronic exchange” for a Korean priority, then it is not necessary to submit the original priority document.
For the original priority document, the applicant can also submit an electronic file stipulated by TIPO to replace the paper document, and attest that said electronic file is consistent with the original, so that the original priority document can be exempted from submission. The following are 3 types of electronic files for a priority document that could be accepted by TIPO:
- A priority document saved in an optical disk (DVD) from the foreign patent authority. The disk must bear the official seal and indicate the number of priority case.
- A priority document from the official website of the foreign patent authority. The priority document that downloaded from said official website must be an electronic document certified by, and have the certified page of, the foreign patent authority.
- An electronic file produced by scanning the hardcopy of priority document issued by the foreign patent authority. The image file should be in the format of JPG, TIF, GIF or BMP, with scanning resolution above 300x300DPI, then merged and converted into A4 portrait size, to become a readable and unsecured PDF file.
