TIPO Exerting All Efforts to Clear Patent Applications Backlog.

In order to shorten the time needed to conclude the examination of some 140,000 invention patent applications, Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) has fully realized its potential.  TIPO concluded 23,382 cases in 2009, with an increase of 42% compared to 16,445 cases concluded in 2008.  TIPO concluded 23,562 cases from January to October 2010, with an increase of 27% compared to 18,494 cases concluded in the same period of 2009.  Additionally, the Executive Yuan has approved “Plan to Clear Up Backlog of Patent Applications” on 24 June 2010.  If all the measures for clearing up the backlog of patent applications can be implemented as scheduled, it is estimated that a total of 304,700 cases can be concluded from 2010 to 2015.  The number of cases pending for examinations can be reduced to normal state of 75,946 and the average concluding period can be shortened to less than 24 months.

With the advent of knowledge economy, the R & D innovation activities of enterprises keep on increasing.  The number of applications of invention patents in Taiwan increased from 22,161 in 1999 to 51,909 in 2008 on a yearly basis.  Due to the influence of the financial crisis in 2009, the number slightly reduced to 46,656.  However, because the number of examiners in TIPO is subject to limited number of additional authorized examiners, the number of externally-employed part-time patent examiner largely reduced from 780 in 2002 to 80 in 2007.  Because of critical shortage in examiners, the number of received applications is much more than that of concluded cases each year.  At the end of September 2010, the total number of invention patent cases pending to be examined increased to 149,862 and the average concluding time prolonged to 40.7 months.

In order to improve the examination capability, TIPO has successfully implemented measures including “Improvement in Number of Annual Concluded Cases of Examiners”, “Introduction of Refund Mechanism for Withdrawal of Patent Application”, “Charge of Invention Patent Fees Item by Item” and “Expansion of Reference to Foreign Patent Search and Examination Results” in 2009, so that the average number of annual concluded cases of each examiner increased from 67 in 2008 to 89 in 2009, and to 105 in 2010.  In other words, the total number of annual concluded cases increased from 16,445 in 2008 to 23,382 in 2009, and is expected to increase to 27,200 in 2010.

In order to fully utilize the examination resources for resolving the predicament of long-term shortage of examiners, The Executive Yuan approved the “Plan to Clear Up Backlog of Patent Applications” on 24 June 2010.  TIPO introduced 97 alternative military service drafts to assist in patent search work in August 2010.  It is expected that the number of concluded patent applications will be increased in 2011.  In addition, the Executive Yuan also put forward the following measures: “complement of 39 authorized vacancies in TIPO”, “employment of 170 new hires by contract for a five-year term”, “expansion of external examiners to assist in search”, “establishment of peripheral organizations to assist in dealing with non-core business” and “establishment of patent development fund”.  The first three measures cannot be implemented until the existing restrictions specified in Articles 7, 16 and 17 under the Act of the Organization of IPO are amended.  The Executive Yuan proposed on 7 June 2010 the amendment to the Act of the Organization of IPO to the Legislative Yuan for legislation.  If the legislative procedure is completed during this session, the number of concluded cases of invention patent applications can increase to a total of 41,000 in 2011.  Also, starting from 2012, the number of concluded cases will be more than that of received applications.  (2010.11)
/DC