TIPO revised and made public the Examination Guidelines on Non-traditional Trademarks on September 12, 2017 - 2017.10.31

On September 12, 2017, TIPO revised and made public the Examination Guidelines on Non-traditional Trademarks, which has come into effect on September 14. For more information, please visit: https://www.tipo.gov.tw/sys.content.asp?mp=1&CuItem=285299&ctNode=7048

IPR Trends Jan-Jun 2017: Patent and Trademark Statistics - 2017.09.22

IPR Trends Jan-Jun 2017: Patent and Trademark Statistics

A. Patent Applications
1. New applications for all three types of patents rose by 3% to 35,566 cases.
2. Inventions (21,913) and designs (3,959) were up by 6% and 0.4%. Meanwhile, utility models (9,694) applications were down by 2% (Table 1).
3. Inventions by residents (8,086) and non-residents (13,827) were up by 9% and 5% (Table 1).
4. By country, Japan (6,275) came on top, followed by the US (3,244), South Korea (822), China (807), and Hong Kong (589) (Fig.1).
5. The top five domestic corporations filing new invention patents were TSMC (329), Hon Hai (215), MTK(165), Acer (136), and AU Optronics (129) (Fig.2)...read more

TIPO’s newly-revised “Patent Q&A” is now available online to the public - 2017.08.22

TIPO revised its “Patent Q&A” to comply with the modified grace period provisions of the amended Patent Act, which took effect on May 1, 2017, new interview system, and changes to patent fee schedule. In “Patent Q&A,” a new chapter on “interviews” was added in addition to the revisions of existing chapters on patent basics, filing patent applications, grace period, requesting division of a patent application, changes in patent right, invalidation, corrections to a patent, as well as patent fees.

For more information, please go to: https://www.tipo.gov.tw/lp.asp?ctNode=7633&CtUnit=3732&BaseDSD=7&mp=1.

Guidelines for the examination of patent applications involving traditional intellectual creations of indigenous peoples comes into effect on June 26, 2017 - 2017.07.20

The indigenous peoples in Taiwan are very unique in terms of their religious ceremonies, music, dance, songs, sculptures, weaving, patterns, clothing, folk crafts, and any other expression of the cultural achievements. To respect their traditional culture and protect the intellectual property rights of their creations, TIPO has recently drawn up a set of guidelines for the examination of patent applications involving traditional intellectual creations of indigenous peoples. By so doing, it is hoped that the prior art in relation to indigenous skills or craftsmanship that have been publicly disclosed will not be neglected during the examination process and judgements made by examiners will become more consistent. The guidelines have come into effect on June 26, 2017...read more