华鼎国际法律事务所 华鼎国际专利商标事务所

一、「发明专利再审查加速审查(AEPRe)」方案于113年9月1日实施，AEPRe系针对初审核驳审定理由仅核驳部分请求项、部分请求项未核驳的案件，于再审查时，申请人以「删除核驳请求项、将未核驳请求项改写为独立项」的方式进行修正，给予加速审查的方案。AEPRe能利用初审审查结果来减少额外判断时间及审查成本，增进再审查审查效能，且申请人可于6个月内收到再审查审查意见通知函或审定书，有助专利申请人加速取得专利。

二、AEPRe申请要件如下：

(一)适格案件：发明专利再审查案，其初审核驳审定理由仅核驳部分请求项者。

(二)申请时点：申请人应于台湾智能局程序审查通知「即将进行再审查函」送达起，至台湾智慧局核发「第一次再审查审查意见通知函」之期间内，申请AEPRe。

(三)修正内容：应依台湾专利法第49条规定提出修正，且全部修正内容须符合以下态样：

1. 删除具有不准专利事由之请求项。
2. 单纯将初审核驳审定理由无不准专利事由的附属项，改写为独立项。

前述修正内容，得一并调整项号、依附关系及新增附属项。

TIPO has established certificate document example database for international priority of patent application.

“Notice for making specification and drawings of design patent(Ver.202309)”is announced.

TIPO provided patent/trademark certificate searching system from 2017 for the inquiry of latest status of granted patent/trademark with the searching conditions of certificate number, application number, assignee/attorney, issuance date and title.

The certificate searching system is now improved to be more user-friendly.  It can support the browsing from mobile device, and the list of search result is not limited by the past constraint, namely, 500 results.

To enhance the completeness and transparency of Taiwan IP information, TIPO has cooperated with petition and appeal committee of MOEA and Judicial Yuan and added the appeal cases of trademark and patent for the past five years and the cases of related litigation since 2021 into TIPONET and TIPO trademark search system.  The service will be available from Dec. 19, 2022.

Besides browsing appeal and litigation on website, the user may download the appeal decision and written judgment of litigation.  The interfaces of TIPONET and TIPO trademark search system are also enhanced for more intuitional enquiry.

In response to the new twelfth edition of the Nice Classification NCL (12-2023), TIPO has amended its own list of Names of Designated Goods and Services for Trademark Registration, effective January 1, 2023. The changes include 48 removals and 481 additions.  As to class/subclass names or notes, there are 42 revisions.

The above amendment will be effective on January 1, 2023. The list of Names of Designated Goods and Services for electronic trademark application system will be updated accordingly.

For the applicant wanting to enjoy fast track examination and using the electronic trademark application system after January 1, 2023, he/she is advised to download the updated list featuring all incorporated changes.  The applicant filling out applications with names of goods and services not found on the system’s current list will not qualify for the application fee deduction and fast track examination.

The Examination Guidelines on Distinctiveness of Trademarks will be enforced on September 1, 2022. 

  The Examination Guidelines on Distinctiveness of Trademarks in Chinese can be downloaded with PDF format in this link.

Taiwan had declared the mission of net zero emission by 2050.  For better understanding the scope of designated goods/services when filing trademark application, TIPO had compiled green-industry related goods/service trademark applications for the reference of relevant companies engaging in this industry. 

  The newly added “Green industry” section includes green energy, carbon right and related energy business, pollution processing and regenerating utilization, green building to zero-carbon building, green industry related certificate and so on. 

  The manual also provides cross reference between the industries and the goods/services name in Nice Classification for clear demarcation of trademark scope.