The Greater China IP Updates – August 2022

August 24, 2022
TIPO and TWPAA Co-host Awards Ceremony for the Patent Specification Drafting Competition The Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) partnered with the Taiwan Patent Attorneys Association (TWPAA) on April 26 to host Embracing IP to Chase Dreams – the 2022 Entrepreneur’s Forum, which is part of the 2022 World IP Day series of events.  The Patent Specification Drafting Competition for Youth was held concurrently in 3 separate locations in North, Central and South Taiwan, and attracted a total of 29 teams of students from 19 Taiwan colleges to participate.  Contestant teams took classes and competed over a period of two days, and a panel of judges consisting of industry experts and government officials chose 3 teams as the winners.  As a yearly event, TIPO hosts various events to celebrate World IP Day.  This year, as part of the theme – IP and Youth: Innovating for a Better Future – the drafting competition was one of a package of activities intended to inspire creative thinking.  During the two days of the event, undergraduate students were introduced to basic concepts in IPR and patent specifications, and with the guidance of professional instructors, the teams could practice converting creative ideas into tangible IP assets. Taiwan Tightens Requirements before Allowing Investment in China The provisions of the Regulations Governing the Approval of Investment or Technical Cooperation in Mainland China have been amended.  In order to protect the IP of Taiwanese firms, the April 2022 revisions have broadened the definition of technical cooperation.  This means that the transfer and licensing of computer program copyrights are subject to restriction.  Also, the transfer of investments to individuals...

The Greater China IP Updates – June 2022

July 7, 2022
TIPO Finalizes Draft Amendments to Taiwan’s Patent Law The Taiwan Intellectual Property Office recently submitted the draft Patent Law Amendment to the Executive Yuan and is expected to be passed soon.  Some of the key aspects of the amendment are as follows: A Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) will be established.  This new agency will deal with appeals of TIPO’s rejections of patent applications, patent term extension requests and procedural requests.  Also, post-grant amendments, compulsory license requests and invalidation actions will be handled by the board whose official name will be The Patent Committee for Review and Dispute Resolution.  The PTAB will be composed of senior patent examiners and legal experts, and a panel of 3 or 5 members will be formed to hear each case. The administrative appeal system will be adjusted.  The Petitions and Appeals Committee will be replaced by the PTAB, and the PTAB will replace the existing re-examination mechanism within the TIPO, thus becoming the first tribunal to hear an invalidation action.  For invalidation actions, the PTAB will examine invalidation actions on the basis of the adversary system by holding oral hearings. The time limit for filing divisional applications will be changed.  The time limit in future will be before issuance of the PTAB decision on an application or within 3 months from the date of receipt of a Notice of Allowance issued to an application.  These rules will also apply to design and utility model applications too. The grace period of 6 months after the disclosure of a design application and before filing will be extended to 12 months. In a dispute over...