The importance of applicant nationality in Taiwan, China priority

According to the Bureau Order No. 58 “Several Provisions on Patent Applications by Taiwan Compatriots” issued by the State Intellectual Property Office in 2010, applicants from Taiwan who file a patent application for the same subject matter with the National Intellectual Property Administration of China within 12 months from the date of first filing an invention or utility model patent application with the patent authority of Taiwan, or within 6 months from the date of first filing an appearance design patent application, may claim the priority of their earlier application in Taiwan (referred to as “Taiwan priority”).

However, in the actual patent application process, not all Taiwan patent applications can claim Taiwan priority, and the nationality of the applicant is an important factor.

According to the regulations, if the nationality of the applicants of the first and second applications is not Taiwan, Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao, Taiwan priority cannot be claimed. If the first application of Taiwan has a co-applicant and the first applicant is not Taiwanese, then its priority will not be recognized. Therefore, the order of applicants of the first application becomes extremely important.

If the applicant of the prior application is a national of a country other than Taiwan, and the applicant has transferred the priority of the prior application to a subsequent applicant whose nationality is Taiwan, Mainland China, or Hong Kong and Macao through priority assignment, but the applicant's nationality recorded in the priority document of the prior application is still incorrectly recorded as not being Taiwan, Mainland China, or Hong Kong and Macao, in this case, the Chinese Patent Office will not recognize Taiwan's priority.