Being mindful of patent applicants' application and portfolio development strategies and timeframes of commercialization of patents, the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) began taking applicants’ requests to defer substantive examination of invention patent applications on April 1, 2015. An applicant may request to defer substantive examination of an invention patent application within 3 years of the filing date of the application and during or after the substantive examination, except for the following four situations: (1) an office action or a decision of examination has been issued by the TIPO; (2) a divisional patent application has been filed with the TIPO; (3) a request for substantive examination has been filed by a third party; (4) a request for accelerating examination through AEP (“Accelerated Examination of Program”) or PPH (“Patent Prosecution Highway”) has been filed with the TIPO. The request to defer, which is free of charge, shall designate a specific date on which the TIPO should resume substantive examination.