Revisions of Article 17, Article 28, and Article 90 of Enforcement Rules of Patent Act of Taiwan take effect as of May 1, 2023

　The Taiwan IPO has amended the Enforcement Rules of the Patent Act of Taiwan to meet the practical needs for patent examination and to enhance examination efficiency.  The amendment thereof has been promulgated since March 24, 2023 and taken effect as of May 1, 2023.  Key points of the amendment are summarized as follows.  

1.  For examination of divisional applications, the Taiwan IPO shall examine and determine whether the subject matter of a divisional application exceeds the scope of the specification disclosed in its parent application at the time of filing, for which the amendment requires applicants of divisional applications to attach marked-up pages that indicate the differences or changes in the specification by having the added content underlined and deleted content struck through and also to provide explanations of these differences or changes, so as to improve examination efficiency.  (Amended Article 28)  

2.  According to the 5^th paragraph of Article 27 of the Patent Act of Taiwan, if an applicant has deposited a biological material in a depository designated by a foreign country in its territory, with which Taiwan mutually recognizes the effect of deposit based on reciprocity, and has also submitted the certificates of deposit issued by the said depository within the statutory time limit, the applicant is exempted from the requirement of making a deposit in Taiwan.  Currently, the foreign depository institutions that have been reciprocally recognized by Taiwan are the international depository institutions recognized by the Budapest Treaty, which requires that the certificates of deposit and viability statements be combined.  Under the amendment and for practical needs, the documents issued by a foreign depository institution should include a viability statement as well.  (Amended Article 17)  (Released 2023.03.25)  
/CCS