Nowadays major intellectual property offices have adopted electronic exchange of priority documents to replace the paper version of certified priority documents for cost and time saving. Priority Document Exchange system (PDX) was first launched between JPO and EPO in 1999, and it allows the retrieval and transmission of priority documents between the Office of first filing (OFF) and the Office of second filing (OSF). WIPO then extended such system into Digital Access Service (DAS) which offers another alternative for participating Offices to exchange priority documents. In order to cope with the global patent filing process, Taiwan revised the Patent Act and Patent Rule in 2013 and began the first PDX program with Japan within the same year.
Recently Taiwan Intellectual Property Office made an announcement that the priority document exchange (PDX) program on patent applications between Taiwan and Korea will be implemented as of January 1, 2016. Said PDX program was based on the previous memorandum signed between Taiwan and Korea on June 15, 2015. In fact, both sides also signed on the same day another memorandum on PPH program which already implemented as of July 1, 2015.
Incidentally, according to the statistics, there are 2,127 patent cases filed by Korean nationals with TIPO in 2014, in which LG Chem Ltd., Samsung Display Co. and Samsung Electronics Co. are ranked in the top 20 among those foreign applicants. For Taiwan nationals who filed patent applications with KIPO, mostly are also companies such as TSMC, Winbond, MediaTek, etc. who filed 955 patent cases in 2014 which is higher when compared with 768 patent cases in 2013.
Based on the PDX agreement between Taiwan and Korea, the applicants of both sides are now exempted from submitting the paper priority documents when filing patent applications. However it is to be noted that such PDX agreement is applicable only to the patent applications of invention and utility model but not design or trademark. Also, it is restricted for the use of national applications filed in Taiwan and Korea, and thus if the applicant files a Taiwanese application to claim the priority of a PCT application filed in KIPO, he still needs to submit a hard copy of certified priority document within 16 months from the earliest priority date.
