Utility Model Patents Adopted Form Inspection The required 16 months Cut to 6 months Have closed about 8,000 cases in two months.

According to the estimation by the Intellectual Property Office of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, up to September 22, 2004, there were 84,700 pending patent cases, which compared to the 110,406 at the end of 2002, the number has dropped by 25,706, and the rate has reached 23%.  It was mostly due to the fact that the amended Patent Law implemented on July 1, 2004 has allowed utility model patents to adopt form inspection, which tremendously shortened the time for inspection.  Furthermore, the IPO has been sparing no effort on inspecting utility model patents in order to avoid the collision occurred during transition of the original and amended Patent Laws since the un-inspected utility model patents would have to follow form inspection after the amended Law was put into practice.  Starting from January 2003 until June 2004, the number of re-inspected utility model patents was around 43,300.

 

With the escalating emphasis on the intellectual property rights, application of patents has climbed throughout the years.  IPO indicated, in 2003, first inspection, re-inspection, objection, reporting and all kinds of patent application cases have climaxed 81,446, a growth of 7.94% compared to 2002 and the application number of 2004 is continuing to expand.

 

After the practice of the amended Law, utility model patents have taken form inspection.  Every application that meets the form components and does not violate any orders or customs may be given the patent right.  Hence, the inspection time course has been greatly reduced from the average 16 months to within 6 months.  About 8,000 cases have been closed in the past two months.  Inspection efficiency is boosted greatly.  It enables shorter average inspection time for every type of patent application than other countries’ and is beneficial to the rapid growth of short-lived high-end technology industries. (2004.10)

CYJ/CHT