Starting from September 1, 2024, the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office will officially implement the "Invention Patent Reexamination Accelerated Examination Highway AEPRe". For patent applications in which only some claims are rejected in the reasons for rejection in the preliminary examination, while some claims are not rejected, the applicant can actively modify the application by "deleting the claims for the rejection request and rewriting the claims that have not been rejected as independent claims" when filing a reexamination request, and grant accelerated examination. AEPRe can use the results of the preliminary examination to reduce the examiner's additional judgment time and examination costs, and improve the efficiency of the reexamination. Applicants who request AEPRe accelerated examination can receive a reexamination opinion notice or a grant notice within 6 months.
The requirements for filing an AEPRe request are as follows:
- Applicable to invention patents where only some of the claims in the invention patent are rejected during the preliminary examination;
- Application time: Applicants should file an AEPRe request from the time they receive the "Notice of Imminent Reexamination" to the time they receive the "Notice of First Reexamination Action";
- Active modification content: Active modification should be made in accordance with Article 49 of the Taiwan Patent Law, and all modifications must meet the following conditions:
- Delete the claims that do not meet the patent authorization conditions.
- The claims rejected in the first instance as not meeting the conditions for granting rights are rewritten as independent claims.
- Re-adjust claim numbers, citation relationships, and add additional claims, etc.
