On 9 May 2023, the Legislative Yuan passed the Amendments to Trademark Act which were promulgated by the President on 24 May 2023 and the enforcement date of said Amendments will be determined and announced by the Executive Yuan. This Amendments include the accelerated trademark examination mechanism, the establishment of a new management system for trademark agents, and defining nominative fair use does not constitute trademark infringement, etc. However, the abolition of the opposition procedure, the establishment of an independent agency dedicated to reviewing trademark remedy cases in the draft amendments have not been passed by the Legislative Yuan.
The main points for the Amendments are as follows:
I. Adding the accelerated examination mechanism for trademark registration applications (Article 19, Article 94, Article104) In order to meet the needs of the domestic industry to obtain trademark registrations timely, the applicants may request the trademark authority to expedite examination procedure by stating reasons and paying accelerated examination fees. However, expediting examination request is not available for those trademark applications to which an official action or a provisional objection has been issued. Read more