Taiwan Legislative Yuan (Parliament) passed three readings of Patent Act Amendment on April 16, 2019. The amendment was made on the partial provisions of Patent Act proposed by Taiwan Intellectual Property Office of November 16, 2018 and then approved by Executive Yuan (Cabinet) on December 27, 2018. The amendment of these provisions was passed and is being sent to the Presidential Office for promulgation. The enforcement date of revised Patent Act will be decided by Executive Yuan and is anticipated to be on November 1, 2019.
The important amendments are summarized as follows:
- The duration of patent term for a design patent will be changed to 15 years, instead of 12 years from the filing date of a design application. If a design patent is still existed and valid on and after the enforcement date of revised Patent Act, its patent term will be automatically be extended to 15 years.
- The filing of a divisional application shall be applicable to an invention or utility model application. It could be filed within 3 months upon receipt of Notice of Allowance after the primary examination or re-examination (there is no re-examination for a utility model application as it is conducted by formality examination only).
- The correction made on a utility model patent shall undergo substantive examination, rather than formality examination, and the time period for filing a correction is limited to certain circumstances.
- An invalidation petitioner should submit invalidation reasons and evidence within 3 months, and any late submission will not be examined. During the examination of an invalidation, a patentee may file correction of specification or claims but within the restricted time period.
The details of above Taiwan Patent Act Amendment can be found in our newsletters of June 25, 2018 and January 22, 2019.
