Feature

China-Taiwan Cross-Strait IP Negotiation Reached Consensus On Mutual Recognition of Priority Right

The long-awaited resolution concerning the problematic priority right issue for cross-strait IP applications has finally come out. The Director of TIPO released the prominent news on June 18, 2010, followed by a successful meeting of China-Taiwan Cross-Strait IP Negotiation, announcing that SIPO, CTMO and TIPO will mutually recognize priority rights based on a corresponding application filed in Taiwan or China.

The remarkable progress on the recognition of priority date is highly welcomed by domestic industries and certainly will also be enthusiastically received by the international industries with R&D facilities in China and Taiwan. Claiming priority to an earlier filing date from the corresponding Taiwan application will help to block prior art or marks found between the filing date in China and the earlier filing date in Taiwan, and vice versa, so as to boost the applicant’s competitive niche in the global market.

For foreign applicants, it facilitates the management of IP rights between China and Taiwan without the need to give up the protection in either jurisdiction. A trademark application firstly filed in Taiwan can enjoy a 6-month priority period to file in China; while there is a 12-month grace period for a Taiwanese patent applicant to file a corresponding application in China, and vice versa.

The China-Taiwan Cross-Strait IP Negotiation also reached consensus on other important IP issues, including establishing an official communication platform for the enforcement of IP rights, the protection of plant varieties and the collaboration on business between IP authorities across the strait. It is anticipated that an official agreement on China-Taiwan Cross Strait IP Negotiation will be signed in a month.