Recently the local media reported that one of the title of creation for Taiwan utility patent with medical efficacy wordings may mislead the consumers that the patented products were approved and endorsed by the patent authority. Namely, the products of granted patents with titles such as “Water filter to treat cancer …”or “Water purifying device to prevent the diseases of …”and were advertised in media with medical efficacy when commercially sold. As discussion and criticism arose among the industrial and legal fields, Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) has made an announcement in response thereto, which mainly includes the following three points:
- Since formality examination is adopted for a utility model application, its patent right would be readily granted when patent specification has met the formality requirements. Therefore TIPO has not examined and recognized the medical efficacy as claimed by the applicant, and hence it is not true that TIPO approves such medical efficacy of the patented product.
- The granted patent is aimed for the patentee to exclude the practice of its patent rights by other party without the consent of said patentee. The relevant specific laws or rules shall apply to the granted invention or utility model patent when put into practice. It shall also be governed by the related medical regulations when the patentee declares the medical efficacy of his products to the consumers.
- For an invention or utility model patent involving medical efficacy wording, TIPO will now issue its notice of allowance accompanied with remarks that the patentee shall abide the related medical laws and rules when practicing the patent rights in the future, in order to reduce the possibility of improper use of the title of patent rights by the patentee. In addition, if the consumer has found a commercial product sold by stating the medical efficacy through its patent certificate, he can inquire or seek advice from TIPO or health authority to prevent the misleading of deceptive advertisement.
With regard to the above, please note that it is expressly stipulated in the Enforcement Rules of Taiwan Patent Act that the title of invention or creation should concisely state the claimed matter of their contents, without any irrelevant wordings. The guidelines for examination also provide the following criteria:
- The patent title should state the claimed matter, and reflect its categories, e.g. product, method or device.
- The patent title does not necessarily to be identical to the subject matter (claimed matter) of the claims, but should cover the categories of the claims, for example, if the claims are recited to both “A process for preparing the mixed vegetables and fruits juice”and “A mixed vegetables and fruits juice,”then the title of invention should be stated as “Mixed vegetables and fruits juice, and its preparation process”, rather than just “Mixed vegetables and fruits juice”or just “Process for preparing the mixed vegetables and fruits juice”.
- The patent title should not contain non-technical term such as personal name, geographical name, sign or symbol, etc.; or vague and ambiguous term such as “or the like”, or merely state as a“product”,“device”, “method”, etc.
- The patent title in the application form and specification should be consistent to each other; also, if the claims are amended to change its subject matter, then the patent title should correspond to such change but it is not necessary for both the patent title and the subject matter of claims to be the same.
