Page 4 - 2018 Annual Report Taiwan Intellectual Property Office

DIRECTOR GENERAL’S MESSAGE
TIPO Director General
In the global innovation-driven environment, my staff and I continue to optimize the IPR infrastructure. In 2018, we launched a variety of new measures and services to assist industries in creating, utilizing and protecting IPRs. There were also breakthroughs in international cooperation, and therefore this was a year of innovation.
Optimizing Patent and Trademark Processing and Examination Efficiency
It has been 10 years since TIPO launched the patent and trademark e-filing system. Through our continuous efforts, nowadays we provide 24/7 online services including filing, payment and delivery of applications. Thanks to the digitalization of granting process, the timeliness of examination has been enormously improved. With the increase in invention patent and trademark applications, their average disposal pendency was shortened to 14 and 7 months respectively. On the other hand, TIPO launched the first hearing on a patent invalidation case this year. With the collegiate panel composed of three examiners, two parties of the patent invalidation case can have an opportunity to respond to questions raised by the other party. This not only improved examination quality but also facilitated a faster solution to disputes without resorting to an appeal procedure.
Strengthening IPR Legal Regime
To keep Taiwan’s IP legal regime in line with the times and international harmonization, we pushed for the amendment to the Patent Act, the Copyright Act and the Trade Secrets Act, and we completed amendment issues of the Trademark Act. The draft amendment to the Patent Act, in which the term of design patent was extended from 12 to 15 years, passed the examination by the Executive Yuan on December 27, 2018, and was sent to the Legislative Yuan for review on January 7, 2019. The amendment to the Examination Guidelines on Biology-related Invention Patent Applications and the Examination Guidelines on Unity of Invention was also completed. The draft amendment to the Trade Secrets Act introduced the system of confidentiality orders for investigation process and is now under review at the Legislative Yuan. Once the amendment is passed, the efficiency of investigation for trade secret cases will be increased.
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