E-Filing System for Patent and Trademark Applications To Be Practiced in April 2007.

  Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) presented the draft regulations for electronic filing system of patent and trademark applications; the electronic filing system is believed to save much time in applications processing.  A public hearing was to be held for the new regulations at the end of October and publication thereof was to be made at the end of December 2006.  The e-filing system will be practiced in April 2007.

  There are 70000 trademark applications filed in average in Taiwan and the processing of a trademark application usually takes about 8 months, which is shorter than 18 months for processing in China and 12 months in Japan.  By contrast, the electronic filing practice in Taiwan falls far behind that in the US and Japan, particularly behind that in the US where 90% trademark applications are filed by e-filing process.  Application by E-filing system is less time-consuming and less complicated since it save the process of converting paper documentation into electronic files; accordingly, efficiency is greatly enhanced.  (2006.10)

/CCS