TIPO Implemented as of December 1, 2017: In Patent Application Form, Country Name Should Be Added to Foreign Company Name
In order to facilitate the identification of the nationality of a foreign company, as of December 1, 2017, when the applicant for the patent is a foreign company, the name of the foreign company in the relevant application form must be filled in before the company name. For example: American XXX Co., Ltd., Japan XXX Limited, British Cayman Islands XXX company and so on. Companies of Mainland China proposed to be added the name of “Mainland Merchants”; Hong Kong companies should add “Hong Kong Merchants” in front of the company names; companies in Macao should add “Macao Merchants” in front of the company names.
As for the patent application before December 1, 2017, if a foreign company needs to re-name in accordance with the new rule, the alias may be re-named according to case-by-case basis and do not need to pay the official fees.
In addition, it was pointed out that if someone claims the priority of the Taiwan patent application to SIPO (Sino Intellectual Property Office), the applicant may fail to add the company name to the country name and may be informed of the inconsistency in the applicant’s main body. In response, TIPO said: At that time, TIPO could issue certified documents as the claimant’s main body to overcome the concerns of SIPO.