The Taiwan Intellectual Property Office announced to pilot the scheme of "Accelerated Examination of Patent Reexamination (AEPRe)" from September 1, 2024. As long as the applicant takes the initiative to amend and delete the claims that negate the patentability in preliminary examination, and retains other claims, the Intellectual Property Office will provide accelerated examination to help applicants obtain patents faster.
The Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) points out that the examination of invention patents comprises two stages: the preliminary examination and the re-examination. If the preliminary examination is not approved, the applicant may request a re-examination. The AEPRe scheme is targeted at cases where the preliminary examination rejected only part of the claims based on the reasons for rejection. If the applicant amends the application during the re-examination by "deleting the rejected claims and rewriting the non-rejected claims as independent claims," so that the scope of the patent becomes the approved scope as determined in the preliminary examination, the applicant can file an AEPRe application for that re-examination case. The TIPO will then conduct an accelerated examination, and an examination opinion will be issued within six months.
In 2023, the number of re-examined invention patent cases was 6,538, with an average first notification period of 10.1 months and an average case conclusion period of 13.1 months. AEPRe, which has been piloted since September 1 this year, can be applied for online, with a simple and convenient procedure that requires no fees. If the applicant files an AEPRe application, the TIPO will issue a notification of the examination opinion or a decision of examination within six months. Furthermore, the TIPO estimates that in practice, applicants should receive the examination results within 2 to 3 months, facilitating them in obtaining patents quickly.
Information source: https://www.tipo.gov.tw/tw/cp-87-977629-4c732-1.html
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