Cross-Strait Patent Forum Commenced, Personnel and Information Exchange Precede, Issues on Right of Priority and Patent Attorneys Shelved.

　Under the aegis of the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the two-day Cross-Strait Patent Forum 2008 commenced on 18 November 2008.  Both Taiwan and Mainland China face the same problem of coping with the rapid increase in the number of patent applications; how to give consideration to both the quality and quantity issues for examining the fast increasing number of patent applications.  The focus of discussion at the Forum is to obtain balance among issues of manpower, training, quality, and time-effectiveness (among others).  Both parties have great changes in the patent agent system and will exchanges practical experiences covering H&R training, trade union organization, and national examinations.

　Wang Mei-Hua, director general of the Intellectual Property Office, indicated the years of 2008 and 2009 as key years to promote exchange and cooperation across the Straits.  The IPO will make a proposal to the Mainland, calling for mutual acknowledgement of patent examination results of the two sides, holding consultations on mutually agreeing the patent and trademark priority rights, and requesting that Taiwan residents would be eligible for participating in Mainland patent attorney examinations to obtain accreditation for practice.  In addition, the Office will bring on a concerted campaign against counterfeiting and other issues.

　Li Yu-Guang (Li), Deputy Director General of State Intellectual Property Office, pointed out the cross-strait patent forum will encourage more practices in patent cooperation across the Straits.  Li put forward five measures on cooperation in IP rights across the Straits on a short-term basis:

　First, more contacts on the administrative level for the two sides, no matter whether they are non-official or quasi-official, to promote the IP rights;

　Second, establishment of mutual trust through intermediary organization;

　Third, communication and cooperation in patent quality examination control or patent implementation, to enhance the level of the examiners of the two sides across the Straits;

　Fourth, training for patent examiners of the two sides; an examiner in the Mainland needs to be trained for two years; in the future, Mainland can designate personnel to receive training in the Taiwan IPO, or information delegation or examiner delegations to Taiwan for having exchange with the Taiwan patent examiners.

　Fifth, cooperation in public patent information services, to strengthen public awareness of intellectual property rights and its protection.  (2008.11)

/DC