Substantial amendment to be made on Patent Law to abolish criminal penalties

Source: Economic Daily News 11/14/2001
Commercial Times 11/20/2001
Liberty Times 11/29/2001
Translated by Corrina Wu

　The Executive Yuan passed the draft of amendment to Patent Law and Trademark Law yesterday (November 28, 2001).  In order to prevent patentees from initiating criminal actions arbitrarily so as to affect the development of enterprises, the Executive Yuan decided to abolish the criminal penalties provided in the Patent Law and add legal bases for MOEA’s own or MOEA’s out-sourcing of patent examination procedures.

　The draft of amendment is enacted for the purpose of solidifying the consensus of the Economic Development Advisory Council and sounding examination mechanisms for intellectual property rights.  The points include abolishment of re-examination and oppositions proceedings and adoption of an “examination of form” system for new utility model patents.  Meanwhile, in order to prevent patentee of utility model patents from abusing their rights by virtue of such system, the draft particularly requires that the patentees of utility model patents should submit technical report for new utility model patents before exercising their right.  This could be considered as a substantial reform on the patent system.  Therefore, the draft adds transitional clauses for new and old laws to specify that the provisions of amendments shall apply to all pending patent applications which were filed before the amendments come into effect.