Taiwan and Japan ink an MOU on patent dossier information exchange

　On November 30, 2018, Taiwan-Japan Relations Association and Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association signed an MOU for patent dossier information exchange, according to which, Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) and Japan Patent Office (JPO) will work together to provide an one-stop platform that provides both Taiwanese and Japanese applicants and patent examiners with immediate, high-quality, and comprehensive files, dossier, and documents of patent examination.  The patent dossier exchange system will enable patent examiners on both sides to consult the patent examination history and result of the other side, which will enhance the convenience, quality, and efficiency of examination, achieve consistency of patent granting in both Taiwan and Japan, and ultimately elevate the quality and stability of patent granting in both countries.  Moreover, this patent dossier exchange system will increase publicity and presence of Taiwan’s patent examination information so that other patent offices around the world may draw reference on the examination process and result in Taiwan.  The system will be officially launched in service starting from January 2021 after its system establishment and relevant tests have been completed.  

　Besides the good and intense relationships in economy and trade between Taiwan and Japan, Japan was the filing country that filed the most applications for all three kinds of patents in Taiwan with 13,850 applications and also 12,497 applications for invention patent in 2017.  Likewise, Taiwanese nationals had also filed almost 3,000 patent applications in Japan in the same year.  Once the patent dossier information exchange between Taiwan and Japan becomes effective, patent applicants and patent examiners may have access to the published patent family, list of examination documents and the content of such documents of a patent application through its application number or publication number.  As to the information or documents in Japanese language, English translation of such information or documents through machine translation system will be available and users may acquire the IPC and citations of an application.  (November 2018)

/CCS