The electronic exchange of patent priority documents between Taiwan and other countries can be traced back to 2 December 2013 when the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) and the Japan Patent Office (JPO) jointly commenced the electronic priority document exchange (PDX) programme. Subsequently, the electronic PDX programme between the TIPO and the Korean Intellectual Property Office was launched on 1 January 2016. Currently, Japan and Korea are the only two countries that cooperate with the TIPO in the electronic exchange of priority documents.
The electronic PDX programme between Taiwan and Japan in the early days applied only to invention or utility model patent applications. In 2019, Taiwan and Japan signed a memorandum of understanding on the electronic exchange of priority documents for design patents to include design patent applications in the PDX programme.
Following the above development, the TIPO amended items 2 and 5 of the original working guidelines for the electronic exchange of priority documents between Taiwan and Japan in 2021, including the following amendments:
- The original constraints on the type of patent applications have been lifted so that the new guidelines apply to all types of patent applications.
- The new guidelines specify the period within which an applicant should submit to the TIPO an access code issued by the JPO. The specified period is 16 months after the priority date for an invention or a utility model patent application and 10 months after the priority date for a design patent application.
These amendments came into effect on 1 January 2022.
For further information on this topic please contact Andy Hsieh at Lee and Li Attorneys at Law by telephone (+886 2 2763 8000) or email ([email protected]). The Lee and Li Attorneys at Law website can be accessed at www.leeandli.com.