萬國法律事務所

Taiwan and Japan have signed a set of cooperative agreements called the Patent Prosecution Highway on 11 April 2012. The PPH will be effective from 1 May 2012 and is expected to shorten the period of inspection for a patent right from 41 months to 12 months on average.

Taiwan and the US signed a PPH last September, and the PPH between Taiwan and Japan is the second international cooperation system for patent right inspection, and is expected to benefit Taiwanese electronics, communication, and technology industries.

PPH is a system under which patent authorities of the contracting parties can retrieve and examine the process and result of patent examinations of each other’s patent offices in order to expedite patent examinations. For instance, if a Taiwanese company applies for patent examination both in Taiwan and in Japan at the same time, as long as the examination in Japan progresses to a substantial examination, the Taiwan applicant may ask the Taiwan patent office to expedite the patent examination in Taiwan and conclude the same within 6 months. Moreover, if a Taiwan applicant obtains a patent right in Japan, the company may ask the Taiwan patent office to issue its decision in its examination within 1.1 months.

If an applicant first applies for a patent examination in Taiwan and then within one month also applies in Japan for the same, the applicant may be granted a patent right within a year, which is much faster than the current 41 months on average.

Japan has been the third largest area for Taiwanese companies/individuals to apply for patents, and most Taiwanese applicants are engaged in the electronics, communications, and technology industries. In 2011 Taiwan companies had submitted 1,450 patent applications in total, and Japanese companies had applied for 13,366 patent applications in Taiwan in total, which numbers were the highest ever.

Therefore the PPH between Taiwan and Japan is expected to bring a win-win situation for both Taiwanese and Japanese companies/applicants.