TIPS^®  Taiwan Intellectual Property Special

The Time of Submission of Supplementary Statement of Reason and Evidence Will not be Limited within One Month

The TIPO announced on December 30, 2000 the revised Patent Examination Standard, Chapter 9, Section two, Article 3 (2) and Section four, Article 1 (5) with respect to the Opposition, Cancellation, and the Examination Ex Officio.

Article 41 (II) of the Patent Law provides that “[s]upplementary statement of reasons and evidence, if any, to be produced by the opposition petitioner shall be submitted within one (1) month from the date on which the opposition action is instituted.” Therefore, in practice, the authority always demand that the opposition petitioner produce new evidence within one month, otherwise such new reasoning and/or evidence will not be reviewed. In other words, only supplemental reason and evidence will be reviewed.

In the announcement, the TIPO indicated that, such time restriction will not apply from now on. The new announcement is derived from the Administrative Court in 85-Pan-2284 judgement. In this judgement, the Administrative Court held that even if the opposition petitioner submitted a new reasons and evidence beyond the one-month period, the competent authority shall still review this new documentation provided that this case is still pending at the authority. This judgement is reiterated and confirmed by the Administrative Court in 89-Pan-1957 judgement.