Taiwan Focus: Amended Patent Act brings key changes

After lengthy negotiation, Congress passed the amendment to the Taiwan Patent Act on November 29 2011. After three readings, the Act seeks to enhance Taiwan's economic and industrial competiveness, promote development of important local technologies and enhance the quality of patent examination. The amended Act is a complete overhaul of the current Act, with 108 out of 159 provisions revised, 36 provisions added and 15 provisions removed. Together with the corresponding measures and implementing rules, the amendment was promulgated and became effective on January 1 2013.

Definitions

In order to avoid any misunderstandings and the inconsistent use of the term “creation” in the previous Act, the amended Act includes inventions, utility models and designs under the term. In addition, the Chinese title for design patent has been modified to comply with international practices. For clarification on the inconsistent definitions of “practice” and “use”, the term “practice” is added to the amended Act. The term now includes to manufacture, offer for sale, sale, use or import for the above-mentioned purposes.