Patent Law to be updated; draft amendment passed preliminary discussion at LY

The Economics and Energy Committee, Legislative Yuan finished the discussion of the draft amendment to the Patent Law on Dec. 16.  In response to the request from industry, the future Patent Law will be fully "de-criminalized", which means that all the patent infringement litigation cases will be handled civilly.  Also, with the abolishment of the pre-issuance opposition, businesses or individuals applying for patents will be issued patent certificates as soon as their patent applications have been examined and approved by the Intellectual Property Office, without waiting for the lapse of the three-month "public examination" period.  The speed of patent issuance will be greatly increased as a result.

The draft amendment to the Patent Law passed on Dec. 16 consists of 138 articles and revamps the current Patent Law almost entirely.  The examining utility models filed for patent by formality examination, abolishing the opposition procedure, and decriminalizing patent infringement have the greatest impact on industry and therefore garner the most attention.

Translated by Jem Chung