According to Articles 40, 41 and 44 of the prevailing Patent Rule, when a patentee would like to file a recordal of assignment of its patent right, aside from submitting the Deed of Assignment and Power of Attorney, it is further required to return the original Letters Patent (patent certificate). Per the old requirement, if the Patentee had lost the original Letters Patent or if the Letters Patent had been destroyed, then at the time of filing recordal of assignment, the Patentee must also simultaneously file for re-issuance of the Letters Patent.
However, the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) recently in its official announcement of August 25, 2006, indicated that in order to simplify the administrative process, from now onwards for filing recordal of assignment (inheritance, trust) of one’s patent right, when an applicant could not submit the original Letters Patent for reasons it was lost or destroyed, it needs only to simply state such reason in the application form for assignment. There is no longer the need to apply for re-issuance of a Letters Patent for the purpose of recording assignment.
