Taiwan IP Updates  ¡V December 2023

By Lyndon 

¡@

Taiwan Introduces the Accelerated Design Patent Examination Pilot Program

The Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) has introduced their Accelerated Design Patent Examination Pilot Program to provide a more flexible examination process for design patent applications.  Following are some of the conditions for applicants to be aware of:

1. Applicants shall provide documents to show that a third party has used the design commercially backed up by a timeline and third party details.  The applicant should submit evidence such as product catalogs, newspapers or magazines.
2. Applicants who have won known domestic or international design awards shall provide relevant documents including a certificate bearing the applicant’s name and appearance of the subject design.  Design awards such as the Golden Pin Design Award (Taiwan), iF Design Award (Germany), Red Dot Design Award (Germany), Good Design Award (Japan), and the International Design Excellence Award (USA) all qualify.
3. Design patent applications from startup companies that are registered and established for less than 8 years can qualify.  If the applicant is a non-Taiwanese company, proof of establishment date (and Chinese language translation) shall be required.  Also, a startup company can only apply for Accelerated Design Patent Examination for a maximum of 3 cases in the same year.
4. The program is applicable once the TIPO has notified the applicant that an application is about to enter substantive examination or re-examination.
5. TIPO expects to render examination results within 2 months at the latest after the application form and necessary documents are submitted in full.  The trial period of the program runs until December 31, 2024.  The TIPO will determine whether to continue implementation or modify the program after the trial period.

Taiwan to Boost International Cooperation on Chip Development

Taiwan will set up overseas training bases under a 10-year semiconductor innovation program initiated by the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) as part of its efforts to enhance exchanges with other countries in the tech field.  The aim of the program is to make Taiwan a major global Integrated Circuit design hub and become a manufacturer of chips used in emerging technologies such as generative AI applications.  The Taiwan Semiconductor Research Institute (TSRI) run by the NSTC’s National Applied Research Laboratories has already comprehensive IC development experience in training, IC design and manufacturing and will back the overseas training bases.  With IC design development costs being less than IC manufacturing, smaller-sized economies will have an opportunity to work with Taiwan in the IC design field.  The result will hopefully bear fruit in the form of closer tech cooperation and business links with start-ups and investment institutions from various countries coming to Taiwan for semiconductor cooperation.  Over the long term, the program estimates that Taiwan could potentially reach an IC design global market share of around 40% by 2033, and 80% global market share for advanced semiconductors of 7 nanometers or below boosting the patent numbers accordingly.