According to Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO), there were 86,794 new filings for trademark registration in 2019. Among them were 71% filed by domestic applicants and 29% filed by foreign applicants. The average time for rendering a decision was 6.7 months, and the average time for issuing a first office action was 5.2 months. Due to rapid changes in the market, many applicants have experienced some pressure to commercialize new products in a shorter period of time, and often hope to quickly register a trademark for protection of brands or logos.
In order to meet the needs of applicants, TIPO has scheduled to launch a fast track trial of trademark examination starting from May 1, 2020. Under this new system, if a new application for trademark registration is filed on/after May 1, 2020 and has met the conditions and requirements of “fast track” examination, a first examination opinion letter by TIPO could be issued within 3.5 to 4 months after filing the new application. This means that the examination period for a “fast-track” trademark application would be 1.5 to 2 months faster than the normal examination period.
The following table shows the conditions and requirements for a “fast-track” trademark application examination, in comparison to the normal examination process.
| Fast track examination | Normal examination | |
|---|---|---|
| Filing route | Electronic filing | Electronic filing or paper filing |
| Type of trademark | Two-dimensional trademark | Two-dimensional trademark, non-traditional trademark (three dimensional mark, sound, color, etc.,) certification trademark, collective trademark,collective mark |
| Power of attorney (simply signed) | A power of attorney has to be filed within 20 days for foreign applicant after filing the trademark application | A power of attorney may be filed within two months for foreign applicant after filing the trademark application |
| Goods/services | The names of all designated goods/services must be the same as the reference names of those items in the list provided by TIPO’s electronic filing system; if any one of the goods does not match said items in the list, then the application will not be examined under fast track system | If the names of all designated goods/services are not the same as the reference names provided in e-filing system, or the names are too broad/vague, the applicant will receive an office action requesting the deletion or amendment, or an explanation thereto |
The official fees for filing a “fast-track” trademark application are the same as that of an electronic filing application. For a new trademark application, the standard official fee is NT$3000 (for 20 items of goods in one class) but it will be reduced by NT$300 if the application is electronically filed. Furthermore, a reduction fee of NT$300 for one class can be applied if the names of all designated goods/services are same as the reference names in the TIPO’s electronic filing system. Since there is no additional official fee for filing a “fast-track” trademark application, the applicant is encouraged to file a new trademark application using the fast-track system, provided that the goods/services have the same names in the list of TIPO’s electronic filing system.
