Quantity and quality stressed equally on IPO’s examination of patent applications

Tsai Lien-Sheng, Director General of the Intellectual Property Office, Ministry of Economic Affairs, recently pointed out in the year-end press conference that upgrading the quality of examination of patent applications and shortening the time scale of examination are the key points for the IPO to make effort. In additional to the deadline for examining a new design patent application which was shortened from sixteen months to fourteen months, the system of “early laying-open of invention patent applications” has been enforced since Oct 26, 2002. It is estimated that the applicants of about ten thousand invention patent applications will not apply for substantial examination, but will choose direct laying-open of their applications in invention gazettes.

 

The Legislative Yuan passed the 3^rd reading of the draft of the amendments to the Patent Law on Jan 3, 2003. After the amended Patent Law is formally enforced, “formal examination” will be applied to utility model patent applications to satisfy the demand of early endowing with rights and reducing the pressure of long pending cases subject to examination. Besides, canceling the opposition system may enable the right owners to claim patent rights at an early date and it has positive significance to raise effects of examination.

 

Additionally, the IPO will set up an ad hoc committee for IPO electronic business and study to install electronic patent network and auxiliary examination system in hopes of approaching the targets of accepting applications without paper and making electronic procedural examination to establish effective and modernized environments for examination and provide complete patent data base.                   

Translated by Joanne Lue