According to current patent law, the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) can organize interviews for patent applications (of invention and design; not applicable for utility patents) or patent invalidation (of invention, utility model or design) by request of the parties involved. In practice, the TIPO has established operational directions for the patent interview system, and the directions have undergone a series of revisions.
To improve the quality of the patent examination process and improve communication between the applicant and examiner, the TIPO has reviewed the operational directions and has decided to make certain improvements. The new measures are implemented from July 1, 2017, and several highlights are summarized as follows.
- For invention/design patent applications, an interview request may be made by the Applicant any time before the patent application is accepted or rejected before the primary examination or re-examination stages. However, the most appropriate time for such interview requests should be filed simultaneously when the office action (including Examination Opinion on the patent application) is received, and a response and amendment is filed. At this time, the issue would become clearer, and the interview may be a more effective method. For an invalidation of patent application (of invention, utility model or design), an interview request shall be filed only after the submission of invalidation reasons by the petitioner or counterstatement by the patentee.
- A written interview request form with the interview fee NT$1000 should be filed with the content or issue that the applicant wishes to make an explanation.
- The applicant can make an audio or video recording during the interview, but the applicant must inform TIPO in advance. Normally, TIPO will grant the request for an interview unless said request is filed with irrelevant issues for the prosecution of a patent application. However, if the Examiner does not find any unclear descriptions in the specification, or any necessary claims for an interview, he may directly issue a decision by stating the reasons for why the interview request will not be granted. The applicant can then refund the official fee paid for the interview request.
- In general, the total interview duration is one hour, but the Examiner may use his or her discretion and extend the interview to two hours. The Examiner will make an interview meeting record or transcript for confirmation by the persons who attended the meeting.
- TIPO will issue an examination opinion or make a decision within two months after the interview, or after the applicant files follow-up amendments or supplemental explanations.
Except the aforementioned, the applicant may also request for a joint interview for related invention patent applications, if the applicant files a series of patent applications (2-10 applications) for relevant technical fields for which requests for a substantive examination had been filed, and if the office action has not been issued.
