TIPO Intends to Allow the Same Invention to Be Filed as Utility Patent and Invention Patent

The Taiwan Intellectual Property Office ("TIPO") held a public hearing on July 18, 2006 to which patent attorneys and other interested parties such as the representatives of Chinese National Federation of Industries and Industrial Technology Research Institute were invited. The main purpose is to resolve the practice of double filing of a technology as a utility patent and an invention patent, which is not permissible under the law. However, given the time it takes for an invention patent to be examined and approved, many have endorsed the practice of first filing the technology as a utility patent since utility patent need not undergo substantive examination and can issue fairly quickly as opposed to an invention patent. Subsequently, the patent owner will let the utility patent to lapse when the invention patent issues. Recognizing that this is the practice in many other countries, the IPO is leaning towards an amendment to the Patent Act to formally allow such practice.