Accelerated Examination Trial Operation Program for Design Patent

Accelerated Examination Trial Operation Program for Design Patent

1. Purpose

The Intellectual Property Office of the Ministry of Economic Affairs (hereinafter referred to as TIPO) particularly developed the “Design Patent Accelerated Examination Trial Operation Program“, which accepts a request for acceleration of the substantive examination of a design patent, to provide a more diverse and flexible examination for design patent applications.

2. Trial period

TIPO will accept applications under this program from September 1, 2023, and the trial period will last until December 31, 2024. TIPO will re-evaluate continuous implementation or modification of the program according to the trial situation.

3. Program content

(1) When to apply

After TIPO issues a notification of starting the preliminary examination, and before the receipt of a first office action notification.

Accelerated examination cannot be requested at the same time as filing a design patent application. After the applicant files a design patent application, TIPO must complete the relevant procedures before the substantive examination becomes available. Therefore, the applicant can only apply for accelerated examination after receiving the notification from TIPO of starting the preliminary examination.

If the application time rule is violated, the application will not be included in the accelerated examination process.

(2) How to apply

Those who apply for this program should follow the electronic means stipulated by TIPO and attach relevant proving documents. All applications must be submitted electronically. TIPO has cooperatively constructed a complete electronic application environment according to the government’s electronic policy to save the notification time of official documents. Therefore, this program is only applicable to electronic applications.

When the application documents for accelerated examination are found incomplete, the Examiners will send a letter to notify the applicant of supplementing the documents. Before the applicant completes the relevant materials, the application returns to the general examination procedure. Entry to the accelerated examination procedure starts only when the relevant documents for the accelerated examination are ready.

If the documents submitted by the applicant are complete, TIPO will not send a letter to notify the applicant. The applicant will receive the examination results (including the notification of grant decision or opinion letter) within 2 months after the submission of the application with complete documents.

During the trial period, the program is free of filing fees.

(3) Reasons of application

<Reason 1> Commercial implementation by a third party 

Applicants who apply for accelerated examination based on reason 1 shall submit relevant proving documents (such as product catalogs, newspapers, magazines, etc.) for the commercial implementation of the third party, and shall state the third-party information, implementation acts, and starting time.

<Reason 2> The filed design has won famous design awards around the globe

Applicants who apply for accelerated examination based on reason 2 shall submit a certificate of merit that matches the name of the applicant, and documents proving the appearance of the corresponding award-winning design. A screenshot of the official website of the design award including the name of the award winner, winning drawings, and hyperlink information is also accepted.

The design awards accepted for this reason are as follows:

(1) Golden Pin Design Award
(2) iF Design Award
(3) Red Dot Design Award
(4) Good Design Award
(5) International Design Excellence Awards(IDEA)

The examiners do not pursue complete consistency in form when identifying the appearance of the award-winning design and the drawings of the design patent application. If the details of the appearance of the design are slightly modified due to engineering or commercialization considerations, and the whole visual effect is not affected, it will still be determined to belong to the scope of the “same design" and meet the reasons for this accelerated examination.

<Reason 3> A design patent application filed by a start-up company

For applicants who apply for accelerated examination based on reason 3, each start-up company is limited to 3 applications in the same year.

The start-up company applicable to this program is an organized company that has been registered and established under the Company Act or a foreign legal act for less than eight years.

The period is calculated from the date of establishment of the company to the filing date of the design patent application. If a priority is claimed, the period shall be calculated based on the earliest priority date.

For local start-up companies, there is no need to submit proof documents. TIPO will check the company’s business information via the public business registration information search website.

If the applicant is a foreign company, it should attach the document proving the establishment date of the foreign company and provide a Chinese translation. If the proving document is not the original, it should provide an affidavit.

Source: https://www.tipo.gov.tw/tw/cp-85-925650-1fdcd-1.html