The Taiwan Intellectual Property Office has promoted the Accelerated Examination Program to expedite the examination process of invention applications, allow applicants to experience a swifter examination process and obtain patent rights in a shorter period of time. There are several possible conditions that must be met in order to qualify, as follows:
1. The corresponding application needs to have been approved by a foreign patent authority under substantive examination. The applicant will need to supply a copy of the relevant Office Actions, an AEP request form, a copy of the approved patent claims, or a copy of the notice of allowance and to-be-published patent claims issued by a foreign patent authority.
2. If an application in a foreign country has received an Office Action during substantive examination (issued by either the European Patent Office, or the Japanese Patent Office, or the United States Patent Office) but has yet to receive approval, it can join the AEP. The applicant should provide at least the first Office Action or the PCT-designated International Search Report from the EPO, or the JPO, or the USPTO. Further required documents include: a copy of the AEP request form, a copy of patent claims based upon the OA and its Chinese translation, and a search report issued by a foreign patent authority.
3. If an application is an invention which has been already put into production, it will qualify as an application that can use the AEP. The documents required include: an AEP request form, evidence showing that the invention has been commercialized, such as licensing agreements, marketing brochures, and commercial catalogues. The fee is NT 4,000, and the results will be issued within six months.
4. Applications involving green technologies can qualify for AEP. The invention needs to relate to green technology areas recognized in Taiwan, such as technologies for improving energy conservation and developing new sources of energy, renewable energy vehicles, or technologies for carbon reduction and resource saving. Documents required include: an AEP request form, and a written explanation indicating the connection between the invention and green technologies. The payment is NT 4,000, and the results will be issued within six months. Deep & Far Attorneys-at-Law