Taiwan Intellectual Property Office extends trial operation of industry collaboration patent examination meetings

Recently, the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office announced that it plans to extend the industry collaborative patent examination meeting program from January 2, 2025, which was originally due, to December 31, 2026.

Target customers

• The same applicant's Qianzhan technology invention patent application case has entered the substantive examination stage, but the first examination opinion notice has not yet been issued.

Scope of Advanced Technology

• The forward-looking technologies in this plan refer to: stem cell regenerative medicine, medical care informatics, Micro LED displays, quantum dot solar cells, neural networks, quantum information, quantum computers, 3nm semiconductor processes, precision chip packaging probes, corner double-layer graphene, third-generation semiconductor materials, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, big data, blockchain, 3D printing, and fifth-generation mobile communication technology.

Implementation

• If a patent application has any of the following circumstances, the examiner of TIPO may notify the meeting ex officio:
  • The examiner initially determined that the application was related to forward-looking technology. After communicating with the applicant, the applicant expressed the intention to explain the technical content.
  • The applicant submits a request for an industry cooperation patent examination meeting, and the number of patent applications is less than 10, and the examiner of TIPO considers that it meets the requirements of this plan
• If the applicant submits a request for an industry cooperation patent examination meeting and the examiner believes that the application does not meet the requirements, the examiner will notify the applicant by telephone that the patent application will continue to be examined according to the general examination procedure.
• During the meeting, the inventor, applicant or their employees and other persons related to the invention technology should be present and explain the technical content of the application to the examiner. If they are unable to attend, they can have a remote online meeting by selecting an appropriate location and connecting to TIPO's conference system to meet directly with the examiner online.
• TIPO will record relevant meeting minutes, such as time, location, participants, and application-related technologies or matters required for review. At the applicant's request, their business secrets do not need to be recorded.