Page 32 - 2018 Annual Report Taiwan Intellectual Property Office

Pendency for Processing PPH Requests
Average First Office Action Pendency (Days) Average Disposal Pendency (Days)
The average first office action pendency for patents filed under the TIPO-USPTO and the TIPO-JPO PPH programs was about 36 days, and the average disposal pendency was about 114-129 days.
Note:1. "Average first office action pendency" refers to the average time from the time document requirements are met to the time first office action is issued. The said pendency is calculated based on office actions first issued or disposed in 2018.
2."Average disposal pendency" refers to the average time from the time document requirements are met to the time final decision is issued. The said pendency is calculated based on disposals made in 2018.
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TW-Support Using the PPH Agreement (TW-SUPA) Examination Program
TIPO-USPTO TIPO-JPO
36.1 36.3
128.7 114.9
TIPO implements the TW-Support Using the PPH Agreement (TW-SUPA) Examination program to effectively share examination results with global counterparts. Applicants can use TIPO’s examination results to fast track their overseas patent applications in key technologies. This program also enables applicants to request fast tracking invention applications within six months from the date of filing corresponding applications with a foreign IPO.
Thanks to the well execution of the Patent Backlog Reduction Project, examination efficiency has been greatly improved. In 2018, TIPO received five TW-SUPA requests. The average first office action pendency was around 2.63 months, and the average disposal pendency was around 7.73 months.
Deferral of Substantive Examination for Design Patent Application
Considering different needs of applicants in filing strategies and developing patent portfolios, TIPO began accepting requests for deferral of substantive examination for design patent applications on July 1, 2018. The period of submitting deferral of substantive examination of a design patent application should be within one year from the filing date. When priority is claimed, the specified time period shall be from the priority date.
Patent Search
The Patent Search Center continued to assist in prior art search for invention patent applications filed with TIPO. In 2018, there were 68 patent search personnel, who provided TIPO with 9,350 search reports. This enhances TIPO’s examination capacity.
Optimizing Patent Examination Quality
Optimizing patent examination quality is one of the main objectives of TIPO. To facilitate consistency in examiners’ judgment and therefore improve examination quality, TIPO continues to
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IPR EXAMINATIONS AND SERVICES