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Under the liberation of global economy and a fast growing environment for technological in-
novation, it is vital for TIPO to sustain its efficient examination work, while at the same time en-
deavors to help businesses obtain their rights for dynamic use of patents and trademarks. In fact,
carrying out duties, moving forward, and supporting businesses are the core values of our work in
2014, and also our goals for the future.
The year 2014 was a year of diligence for patent and trademark examiners. We surpassed
our original goals by lowering the average pendency for patent first office action to 21.2 months
and average pendency for disposal to 29.7 months. The average pendency for trademark first of-
fice action and disposal was also lowered to 5.7 and 7.8 months, respectively. Expediting patent
and trademark examinations does not lower the excellent quality of our work, and upholding
quality examination is an assurance our examiners give to all applicants. As such, we relentlessly
strengthen trainings for our examiners, conduct examination reviews, and maintain open and
positive dialogues with the public for feedback.
It is our obligation to create better IPR regimes for rights holders and investors. Last year,
we added stronger border control provisions to the Patent Act, revised our Patent Examination
Guidelines, and at the same time, reviewed our regulations to relax patent grace period and ex-
tend design patent term of protection. We also proposed a revision to
the Patent Attorney Act, which is currently under review at the Leg-
islative Yuan. Though revisions to the Copyright Act drew tremen-
dous public attention and the process was challenging, we upheld
our determination in order to create a better regime.
We moved forward to face the many challenges in intel-
lectual property rights. To better appreciate the needs within the
business sector, we organized 15 customized information sessions
on corporations filing patent applications and mapping out patent
portfolios. To resolve the public problems of licensing
for use in computer karaoke machines, we were suc-
cessful at establishing a one-stop window to handle
licensing matters. To help with the development of
regional products, we provided guidance and support
to local governments and indigenous peoples on the
filing for and use of geographical certification marks.
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MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR GENERAL