The Taiwan government recently redrafted a new Patent Attorney Act and such Act was passed by the Legislative Yuan (the Congress) and promulgated on July 11, 2007. This new Patent Attorney Act will be enforced on January 11, 2008, and it will replace the Administrative Order for “Regulation Governing Patent Agent”.
Highlights of the New Patent Attorney Act are as below:
- The practice of a patent attorney will include: prosecuting patent application matters, patent opposition and invalidation matters; filing recordation of patent assignment, trust, pledging, licensing and compulsory licensing matters; and handling any other matters in accordance with the Patent Act and related laws (Article 9 of the Patent Attorney Act).
- For professionals who have practiced as attorneys-at-law, certified public accountants and professional engineers, and those who are registered as patent agents with experience in handling patent matters for more than one year, and also patent examiners who were once in charge of conducting substantive examination for at least two years and registered as patent agents with experience in handling patent matters for more than three years, they are exempted from taking the Patent Attorney Examination when the Patent Attorney Act comes into force (Article 35 of the Patent Attorney Act).
- All patent agents who were registered with the government authority prior to the enforcement of the Patent Attorney Act, can still handle patent matters as stipulated in Article 9 of the Patent Attorney Act (Article 36 of the Patent Attorney Act).
