Executive Yuan will amend provisions of a part of the Patent Law Draft
The 3509th meeting of the Executive Yuan agreed to the draft provisions of “Patent Law” amendment on August 4, 2016. This time, the main objective of the proposed draft amendment of certain provisions of the Patent Law is to make Taiwan legal system in line with the provisions of TPP(Trans-Pacific Partnership) Agreement。
The amendments of the Patent Law focus on three main points：
1.Grace Period Extending：If the applicant discloses his invention before filing the patent, and submit the application during the grace period, then the disclosure will not impact the novelty of the patent. This time the amendment of the regulation extends the grace period to 12 months from application date. Meanwhile, in response to the demands of the industrial sector, Executive Yuan will delete advocated procedural restrictions of the grace period of the patent application. (Amendment Article 59 and Article 142)
2.Patent Right Extending：The existence period of Patent Right is counted from the filing date, however, the assignees cannot enforce the patent right until grant the patent. To avoid unreasonable delay during the patent examination period and causing the right of the assignees, this time the amendments of the Patent Law agree to extend the valid period of Patent Right on account of Patent Examination delay. In the future, if the patent examination causes unreasonable delay, then the assignee can request for extending the valid period of the patent right. (Amendment Article 57-1 to 57-4)
3.Patent Link System for New Pharmaceuticals： In response to the amendments of Pharmaceutical Affairs Law, the patent link system has been guided into the official system. It is clearly specified that in the generics pharmaceutical license examination process, the patent owner of the new pharmaceuticals can bring a lawsuit to clarify whether the product involves any patent dispute. (Amendment Article 60-1)
Considering that the amendments of extending the grace period would contribute to the inventors for granting a patent to protect his own research achievements, and beneficial to the industry, Executive Yuan hopes that the law could be implemented just after amending. As for the other two amendments, Executive Yuan will decide the valid date according to TPP negotiation status and relevant supporting progress.