Taiwan and Japan held meeting in Tokyo recently to discuss bilateral cooperation on several issues including patent sharing information, environmental protection and organic products. On October 30, 2019, memorandums including Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) and Priority Document Exchange (PDX) were signed by both sides. The following is a brief synopsis of the PPH and PDX memorandums.
Patent Prosecution Highway（PPH）
PPH pilot program was first launched between Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) and Japan Property Office (JPO) on May 1, 2012. The program was then extended and modified to PPH MOTTAINAI in 2014 and further extended for three years in 2017. Per TIPO’s latest data, PPH programs remarkably speed up examination process, with an average time of first OA pendency at 1.21 months and disposal at 3.77 months, respectively. Among all PPH requests as filed with TIPO, there were 3,426 requests from Japanese applicants by the end of September 2019, outnumbering other five PPH programs in Taiwan. In fact, Japanese applicants filed 14,169 patent applications in 2018, while their patent filings and PPH requests are always in top rank of all patent or PPH cases filed by foreign applicants in Taiwan. As PPH program has achieved high efficiency in patent examination process, both TIPO and JPO decide to implement a permanent PPH program from May 1, 2020 by replacing the pilot program after its expiry.
Design Patent Priority Document Exchange (PDX)
For a Taiwan patent application claiming foreign priority right, it is mandatory for patent applicant to submit a certified priority document issuing by said foreign patent authority. The certified priority document should be an original document, but if the priority document has been electronically exchanged between TIPO and said foreign patent authority, said priority document via PDX will be deemed as submitted by the patent applicant. In this regard, Taiwan and Japan signed PDX in the year of 2013 to facilitate electronic exchange of priority document for invention and utility model patent applications, but it did not include PDX for design patent applications. In order to have a more comprehensive range of electronic exchange, TIPO and JPO decide to provide PDX also for design patent applications. Both sides have arranged the development and testing of PDX system to meet this purpose. It is expected that the design PDX service may officially be launched in April of 2021.
