Taiwan IPO launches “Fast Track” trademark examination mechanism on May 1, 2020

　Taiwan IPO introduces the “Fast Track” trademark examination mechanism to encourage e-filing applications and expedite registration application examination.  As of May 1, 2020, the applicants whose payment of the required statutory fees and whose documents meet the following requirements at the time of filing will be eligible to have their applications go into examination two months earlier than others:  

(1)  Electronic applications; 

(2)  Applications for plain trademarks, excluding non-traditional trademarks, certification marks, collective membership marks, and collective trademarks; 

(3)  The names of all designated goods or services of the proposed mark are exactly the same as the reference names provided in Taiwan IPO’s e-filing system; 

(4)  The required fees are paid through a designated bank account, over the counter by an electronic payment sheet in printout form, or on eATM; 

(5)  A power of attorney should be presented if there is a duly authorized agent.  

　Applications meeting the above procedural requirements will be prioritized for examination, and it is expected that the applicants of such applications will know the result of examination approximately 1.5 months earlier than the current average first action pendency, which will speed up these applicants’ business expansion and deployment by use of their registered trademarks.

　For instance, in case of an application filed on May 1, 2020 under the Fast Track mechanism, the time of having the application submitted for examination will be the same with that of a general trademark registration application filed on March 1, 2020; it will be submitted for examination about 2 months earlier.  However, it is noticeable that the “first-to-file” and “first-to-register” rule still apply under this new mechanism; that is, the earlier applications will still be registered first and thus expel the later ones.  

　The applications eligible for the new mechanism will be indicated as “Fast-Track” cases in a detailed form of Taiwan IPO’s trademark search system about one month after e-filing and the status of these applications will be shown as well.  (March 2020) 

/CCS