– The Patent Law (regulating also patents of utility models and patents of designs) promulgated on May 29, 1944 (effective from January 1949), as amended on January 22, 1959, May 12, 1960, April 16, 1979, December 24, 1986, January 21, 1994, May 7, 1997 (effective from January 1, 2002), October 24, 2001, February 6, 2003 (effective from July 1, 2004), August 25, 2010, (effective from September 12, 2010), December 21, 2011 (effective from January 1, 2013), June 11, 2013 (effective from June 13, 2013), January 22, 2014 (effective from March 24, 2014), January 18, 2017 (effective from May 1, 2017), May 1, 2019 (effective from November 1, 2019), and May 4, 2022 (effective from July 1, 2022).

– Enforcement Rules of the Patent Law promulgated on September 6, 1947 (effective from January 1, 1949), as amended on August 16, 1958, August 22, 1973, October 2, 1981, April 18, 1986, July 10, 1987, October 3, 1994, November 6, 2002, April 7, 2004 (effective from July 1, 2004), August 19, 2008, November 16, 2010, November 9, 2012 (effective from January 1, 2013), November 6, 2014 (effective from November 8, 2014), March 7, 2016 (effective from March 9, 2016), June 29, 2016 (effective from July 1, 2016), April 19, 2017 (effective from May 1, 2017), September 27, 2019 (effective from November 1, 2019), June 24, 2020 (effective from June 26, 2020), October 20, 2022 (effective from October 22, 2022), and March 24, 2023 (effective from May 1, 2023).

– WTO’s TRIPS Agreement, since January 1, 2002.

Type of patent: national patent.

Applicant: inventor, his legal successor, or assignee, either individual or legal entity, may alone or jointly apply. 

Naming of the inventor(s): it is compulsory to name the inventor(s) in the application form.

Employee’s inventions: (1) if made in performance of duties, patent right therein shall be vested in employer while the employer shall pay appropriate sum, unless there is an agreement to the contrary; (2) if not made in performance of duties, shall be vested in employee, subject to employer’s right to work the invention in his enterprise upon payment of appropriate sum, provided that the invention was a result of application of employer’s resources or experience; (3) any contract preventing employee from enjoying rights and interest of his invention shall be void. 

Foreigners and nationals not residing in the country: must appoint a registered patent attorney residing within the country. 

Protection of foreigners: national treatment is accorded to those foreigners whose country, by treaty, by national law or de facto, accepts applications filed by nationals of Taiwan. 

International priority right: international priority right may be claimed if (1) the application is filed within twelve months following the next day of the first filing date for the same invention which is filed according to the law in a foreign country (namely WTO member States) which has a mutual recognition of priority right with Taiwan; (2) the home country of the applicant is one of the reciprocal countries (namely WTO member States). If the nationals of countries outside the reciprocal countries who are domiciled or who have industrial or commercial establishments in the territory of one of the reciprocal countries, they shall be treated in the same manner as nationals of the reciprocal countries; and (3) the claimed priority application is the one first filed anywhere in the world. The claim of priority shall be simultaneously made together with the filing of the application.

Domestic priority right: priority right can be claimed within a twelve-month period from earlier Taiwan patent or utility model applications if such earlier application has not claimed the priority of another earlier application.

Reinstatement of priority claim: if the applicant unintentionally fails to make a claim for priority at the time of filing, reinstatement of priority claim may be applied for within sixteen months from the earliest priority date.

Novelty and non-obviousness: (1) no disclosure in a printed publication prior to the filing of the patent application; (2) no public exploitation prior to the filing of the patent application; (3) not publicly known prior to the filing of the patent application; (4) no invention that can be easily made by a person ordinarily skilled in the art based on prior art; (5) no earlier-filed identical invention or utility model patent application which is laid-open or published after the filing of the present patent application.

Novelty grace period may be claimed for above (1) to (4) if the invention was disclosed either intentionally or unintentionally by an applicant and the application is filed within twelve months after disclosure, it is not detrimental to novelty and non-obviousness. However, it is not applicable if the publication in a Gazette is made in Taiwan or a foreign country in accordance with the laws as the consequence of filing a patent application. 

Exceptions to protection (unpatentable inventions): (1) animal, plant, and essential biological processes for the production of animals or plants, except for processes for producing microorganisms; (2) diagnostic, therapeutic and surgical methods for the treatment of humans or animals; and (3) inventions that are detrimental to public order or good morality. Patent protection for biological material – related invention application is available. In case the biological material employed in the invention is not readily available for a skilled person in the art, the applicant shall, prior to the filing, deposit the biological material to the domestic depositary institute designated by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO), and the certificate of deposit issued by the depositary institute has to be submitted to the IPO within four months after the filing (or sixteen months from the earliest priority date, if priority is claimed). If the deposition has been done with a foreign depositary institute recognized by the IPO before filing the application in Taiwan, the deposition with the domestic depositary institute may be done after the filing. The certificates of deposit issued by both domestic and foreign depositaries have to be submitted to the IPO within four months after the filing (or sixteen months from the earliest priority date, if priority is claimed). Taiwan has signed an agreement with Japan, the United Kingdom (UK), and the Republic of Korea on reciprocal recognition of the deposit of biological material at the depositary in either Japan or the UK or the Republic of Korea, and thus re-deposit in Taiwan of the biological material deposited in the depositary of either Japan or the UK or the Republic of Korea is exempted.

Filing requirements for an application (to be sent to resident attorney):
1. Specification, claims and drawing(s), if any, in acceptable foreign language (the acceptable foreign languages by the IPO are Japanese, English, German, French, Korean, Russian, Portuguese, Spanish and Arabic);
2. Information of full name, address, nationality and domicile or residence of the applicant(s); name of representative authorized to sign on behalf of the applicant, if the applicant is a legal entity;
3. Information of full name and citizenship of inventor(s);
4. Specification, claims and drawing(s), if any, in Chinese;
5. Power of attorney (if given in general terms, will be valid for all subsequent applications of the same applicant);
6. Information such as filing date, application number and name of the country of priority application;
7. Certified copy of the priority document, if priority is claimed. (Certified paper copy or compact disk issued by, or electronic copy downloaded from, the Patent Authority of the priority application, or electronic copy scanned directly from the original certified paper copy issued by the Patent Authority will be accepted.) Also, the Taiwan-Japan and Taiwan-Korea "Priority Document Exchange" (PDX) programs have been implemented since December 2, 2013 and January 1, 2016 respectively. Under the PDX program, neither certified paper nor electronic copy of the priority document is required. For Japanese priority application, only an “access code” issued by the Japanese Patent Office is required to be provided with the IPO. As for Korean priority application, only a request of “utilizing PDX program” is required to be indicated on the application form at the time of filing the application.

Minimum requirements on filing date: in order to obtain a filing date, applicants may first submit the documents/information under above-mentioned items 1, 2 and 3. If priority is claimed, in addition to the aforesaid documents/information, the information under above-mentioned item 6 needs to be indicated in the application form concurrently with filing. The certified copy of the priority document must be submitted within sixteen months from the earliest priority date. The other documents/information may be submitted later on, upon request of extension of time, but the maximum term of such extension cannot exceed six months from the filing date. 

Electronic filing: the IPO launched its electronic filing system for patent applications in 2008 and NT$ 600 can be deducted from the filing fee for each e-filing of a new patent application.

Electronic signatures: are accepted.

For a change of name:
1. Certificate of change of name (no notarization or legalization);
2. Power of attorney, simply signed.

For a change of address: no documents are required.

Filing date and formality examination: if the application meets the minimum formal requirement, a filing date and a serial number will be given and a notification will be sent to applicant with a request to complete all the formal requirements within a given term. 

Secrecy: inventions relating to national defense will be kept secret. 

Publication of application: provided that all formal requirements have been complied with, a patent application shall be laid open in the Official Patent Gazette after expiration of eighteen months from the filing date or the first priority date, if priority has been claimed. Applicant may request an earlier publication of the application.

Request for substantive examination: anyone may apply for substantive examination with the IPO within three years from the filing date. If the examination request has not been made in due time, the application shall be deemed to have been withdrawn.

Accelerated examination: an applicant may apply for accelerated examination of the application according to the Accelerated Examination Program (AEP) with the necessary documents, if one of the following four conditions is met: (1) the foreign counterpart has been granted under substantive examination; (2) the EPO, JPO or USPTO has issued an OA during substantive examination, but yet to allow application's foreign counterpart; (3) the application is essential to commercial exploitation; or (4) the invention relates to green technologies. Further, accelerated examination under the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) is also possible. The IPO has PPH programs with six national Patent Offices respectively, including USPTO (U.S.A.), JPO (Japan), SPTO (Spain), KIPO (Korea), PPO (Polish) and CIPO (Canada). PPH enables a counterpart application, which contains at least one claim determined to be patentable in any one of the six Patent Offices, to undergo an accelerated examination in the IPO with a simple and fast procedure. Under the PPH, Taiwan claims must be amended to be identical to or narrower than the claims allowed or specifically allowable in the counterpart application in scope. PPH MOTTAINAI is also available with JPO, SPTO, KIPO, PPO and CIPO.

Third party observations on patent applications: effective as of September 1, 2020, if a third party considers an invention patent application, to which the decision of examination has not been rendered, violates the grounds on which a patent should not be granted as stipulated in Article 46 of the Patent Law, they may submit to the IPO a Third-Party Observation Form, together with a list of citations, arguments and relevant materials. The IPO shall notify the applicant of said observation, the applicant may then request for reviewing of the relevant materials submitted by the third party, and file a response or rebuttal, if necessary. The IPO is not obliged to inform the third party of disposal results and decision of examination for the invention patent application. After the invention patent is laid open or published, the "list of citations" submitted with the third party observation will be available to the public on the IPO's Patent Search System.

Examination by the Intellectual Property Office (the IPO): novelty (worldwide), non-obviousness and industrial utility will be examined by an Examiner when the substantive examination has been requested. If all the claims are found allowable, an allowance decision will be issued accordingly. If all or some of the claims are deemed unallowable or amendment of claims is deemed necessary, an Office action requesting a response or amendment will be issued, and a reply, either to completely comply or just to express disagreement with the Office action, must be filed within a given term, in case of foreign applicants within three months, then a formal decision of allowance or rejection will be issued accordingly. If an application is rejected by decision, a petition for reexamination must be filed within two months and the argument for reexamination can be submitted simultaneously or later on. The same procedure of the primary examination will be repeated but the Examiner is different.  

Final notice of rejection decision: after the IPO issues an Office action at the primary examination stage, as it deems necessary, the IPO may issue a final notification. The applicant can only apply for amendment within the response period.

Appeals: when the application is rejected upon reexamination at the IPO, administrative appeal and administrative suit proceedings are successively available. 

Amendment of application: an amendment may not introduce any new matter that was not substantially described in the claims, description and the drawings initially filed at the time of filing the application.

Time limitation on filing amendments: voluntary amendments may be submitted anytime before the first Office action in the primary examination or reexamination stages respectively is received. 

Division: is allowed if a patent application includes two or more inventions; it can be divided into one or more divisional patent applications. The divisional application will enjoy the original filing date if such division is made before the issuance of a reexamination rejection decision or within three months after receiving an allowance decision issued at either primary examination or re-examination stage.

Conversion: an application for patent of invention may be converted into one for utility model and vice versa, within two months (for invention) and thirty days (for utility model) upon receipt of the rejection decision of examination, and retain its original filing date. 

Prior user disputes: no prior user dispute process in Taiwan.

Publication and issue of patent certificate: when a decision of allowance is issued, the issue fee and the first year annuity must be paid within three months so that the publication may be made and a Patent Certificate may be issued (in either paper or electronic format, upon applicant's request). Deferment of publication for six months is permissible and has to be applied for at the same time as paying the issue fee and the first year annuity.

Duration of protection: patent right is valid for twenty years from the filing date.

Extension: where a certificate of approval is required by other laws for working the invention patents of pharmaceuticals (excluding veterinary drugs), agricultural chemicals or the manufacturing process thereof, and such certificate is obtained after the publication of the patent, the patentee may apply for patent term extension for up to five years and for one time only.

Annuities: from 1st to 3rd, NT$ 2,500 per year; from 4th to 6th, NT$ 5,000 per year; from 7th to 9th, NT$ 8,000 per year; from 10th to 20th, NT$ 16,000 per year; issue fee: NT$ 1,000, and the first year annuity is due within three months upon receipt of the allowance decision; subsequent annuities are due on the day before the anniversary of publication date each year, with a grace period of six months provided a fine is paid.

Reinstatement of patent right: if an applicant/patentee unintentionally fails to pay the issue fee and/or annuity when due, he is allowed to request for reinstatement of patent right within a specific period provided, i.e. six months from the original due date for paying the issue fee and the first year annuity; and one year after the six-month grace period expires for paying the second or any subsequent annuity, provided a fine is paid. 

Amendment of issued patent: is limited to narrowing the scope of the granted claims, correcting mistakes and discrepancies, and clarifying unclear statements.

Marking of patented goods: must be marked with “Patented” and the number of the Patent Certificate in order to be able to claim damages from infringers. 

Working: no requirement for the owner of a patent to work the invention. However, under certain circumstances, a compulsory license may be granted.

Assignment: assignment of patent right shall have no locus standi against any third party unless it is recorded with the IPO. Deed of assignment signed by assignor and power of attorney issued by assignee must be submitted. New Patent Certificate in the name of assignee will be issued after registration. 

License: shall have no locus standi against any third party unless it is recorded with the IPO. License agreement signed by licensor and licensee is required for applying for recording.

Invalidation: patents may be invalidated on the following main grounds: (1) that the invention lacks industrial utility, novelty, and non-obviousness; (2) there is insufficiency of disclosure in the written description (lack of enablement); (3) the claims are not supported by the description and drawings; (4) the pre-amendments exceeded the scope of specification, claims or drawings originally filed; (5) the patent application right was jointly owned, but the application was not filed by all joint owners; (6) the patent was granted to someone not entitled to file for the patent; and (7) the home country of the patentee does not accept patent applications filed by Taiwan nationals.

Compulsory license: it may be granted to applicant if (1) it is for the purpose of responding to national emergency or the patent is to be exploited non-commercially for the enhancement of public interest; (2) where a later invention or utility model patent cannot be practiced without infringing a prior invention or utility model patent, and where the later invention or utility model patent involves an important technical advancement of considerable economic significance in relation to the prior invention or utility model patent; or (3) unfair competition act committed by the patentee has been adjudicated by the court or disposed of by the Fair Trade Commission.

Revival of lapsed and invalidated patents: not possible. 

Infringement and penalties: for patent infringement, no criminal sanctions can be imposed on infringement of patents, however, patentee or exclusive licensee may demand an injunction to restrain such infringement and may claim damages therefor. The patentee (or exclusive licensee) has three options to choose from as the basis for assessing the quantum of damages. The first is the total of the patentee’s actual damages and lost profits. The second is the profits earned by the infringer as a result of infringing activities. The third is the equivalent amount of royalty that may be collected from exploiting the invention patent under licensing. The court may assess and set punitive damages, upon the patentee's request, in an amount up to triple the proven damages if the infringement is found to be intentional.