The Taiwan Intellectual Property Office announced a draft amendment to the Enforcement Rules of the Patent Act on January 3, 2023. Two of the key points are as follows:
1. To determine whether any amendments are made in divisional applications, TIPO shall carefully review whether their subject matter has extended beyond the content of the earlier application as filed. Applicants are required to attach a marked document indicating differences or changes in the application, with added subject matter underlined and deleted subject matter struck through, along with a relevant explanation of any and all alterations made, thus improving efficiency in the examination of divisional applications.
2. In accordance with Article 27 of the Patent Act, if a biological material has been deposited in a depository designated by a foreign country in its territory with which Taiwan recognizes the effects of deposits based on reciprocity, and the certificate of deposit issued by said foreign depository is submitted within the time period prescribed, the applicant is exempted from the requirement of making a deposit in Taiwan. Presently, foreign depository institutions that have been reciprocally recognized by Taiwan are international depositary authorities under Article 7 of the Budapest Treaty. These authorities shall issue documents that include certificates of deposit and viability statements, a practice that Taiwan also adopts. In order to promote mutual recognition of biological material deposits between Taiwan and other countries, documents issued by depositories without the status of an international depository authority must include a viability statement.