Taiwan launched the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot program in September 2011. In order to promote the better sharing of information in patent examination with the patent office which has signed the PPH program with Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO), and to encourage the applicant taking the advantage of PPH by using the examination results in Taiwan for filing PPH request of his corresponding foreign patent application, TIPO has implemented TW-Support Using the PPH Agreement (TW-SUPA) examination pilot program starting from March 1, 2012. TIPO has set a trial period of six months to carry out this program and will review the results to decide if it is to be fully implemented after the trial period.
Below are the requirements and documents for requesting examination under TW-SUPA for a Taiwanese (TW) patent application at TIPO.
Requirements
- The TW patent application should be a basic application first filed in Taiwan so that it could serve as the priority case for a corresponding foreign application filed in the patent office which has signed PPH program with TIPO.
- The TW patent application is an invention application which has been laid-open (If negative, the Applicant must file an early laid-open request at the same time when filing the TW-SUPA request).
- The substantive examination has been conducted on the TW patent application and a first examination opinion has not been issued (if negative, the Applicant should file a request for substantive examination and then file the TW-SUPA request after TIPO notifies a substantive examination will be conducted).
- The Applicant should file the TW-SUPA request within 6 months after filing the corresponding foreign application.
Documents Needed
- A TW-SUPA request form
- Evidencing document of the corresponding foreign application
- At least two prior art references which the Applicant deems most closely related to his invention (if the reference is a patent literature document, then it may be omitted) with the reasons showing the claims of said TW application to be patentable over said prior art references
- Other documents which may facilitate the TW-SUPA examination
- Official fee of NT Dollar 4000
