TIPS^®  Taiwan Intellectual Property Special

Announcement of “Substantive Examination of Design Patents, Chapters 1 to 6, Patent Examination Standards Part 3”

The TIPO announced the amendments to “Substantive Examination of Design Patents, Chapters 1 to 6, Patent Examination Standards Part 3” on March 4, 2005 and such amendments are implemented from the same date. The standards set out the relevant explanations such as the international priority claims, supplements, amendments and corrections on specifications and drawings, special applications for associated designs and divisions.

Despite strong advocacy from the industry for the admission of partial designs for articles as statutory subject matter, the TIPO continues insisting on that under the effective Patent Law, a design seeking patent protection must be applied to an “article.” According to the Guidelines, a design must be applied to an article that is of a concrete object and can be individually put into commercial transaction by ordinary consumers. Accordingly, a design applied to a “portion” of an article shall be deemed to fail to meet the definition of design patent and therefore unpatentable.

However, the TIPO realizes the global trend of expanding design patent protection to partial designs and the need from the industry in seeking patent protection for designs applied to portions of articles, such that the scope of design protection would not be unduly limited by the drawings illustrating the designs applied to entire articles. The TIPO has undertaken the project of drafting a Draft Patent Law that will distinctly extend design patent protection to a design applied to a portion of an article.