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Patent Backlog Cleanup Project and Expected Results. Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) Chinese Taipei. Outline. Ⅰ. Background (1/3). Ⅰ. Background (2/3). Number of Applications. Year.
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Patent Backlog Cleanup Project and Expected Results Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) Chinese Taipei
Ⅰ. Background (2/3) Number of Applications Year Fig.1 Number of pending applications, requests for substantive examination and applications concluded at TIPO.
Ⅰ. Background (3/3) Examination concluded Office action issued Months Year Fig.2 Pending period for examination concluded and first office action issued.
A. Measures to improve examination efficiency (1/4) 1.Increasing number of concluded case per year • Examination capacity has reached 89 cases/person/year in2009 • 105 cases by 2010 and 110 cases by 2011
A. Measures to improve examination efficiency (2/4) 2. Refunding withdrawn application • Adopting refund mechanisms used in the US and Japan • 2,159, 3,207 and 2,681 withdrawals in 2009, 2010 and 2011, respectively • Estimating 2,500 withdrawals in 2012
A. Measures to improve examination efficiency (3/4) 3. Using foreign patent search and examination results • Accelerated Examination Program (AEP) began on January 1, 2009 • On September 1, 2011, PPH pilot program was launched between TIPO and the USPTO
A. Measures to improve examination efficiency (4/4) 4. Combined interview for a group of related applications • On June 13, 2011, combined interview was begun • Combined interview should be based on a group of applications with related technical field and filed by the same applicant • Face-to-face combined interview for a group of applications will improve examination efficiency
B. Employing alternative military draftees to assist with prior art search (1/2) • TIPO was assigned 97 and 70 alternative military draftees with R&D background from the Ministry of Interior in 2010 and 2012, respectively • TIPO will request for 50 R&D draftees in 2013 • These R&D draftees are only responsible for patent search; technical comparison and examination notices are still written by examiners
B. Employing alternative military draftees to assist with prior art search (2/2) Month Fig.3 Number of search reports completed by R&D draftees in 2011.
C. Filling 39 examiner positions • TIPO has amended its organization rules, by reducing 39 clerks to make room for 39 examiners • They will report to duty on January 1, 2013
D. Hiring 170 contracted examiners on 5-year term • TIPO has amended its organization rules to hire 170 fixed-term examiners • Their term of service is from April 2012 to March 2017 • Expecting to conclude 65,900 cases when their 5-year term of service ends
E. Peripheral organization to conduct search report • Reference to IPCC and KIPI, set up peripheral organization mainly to assist with prior art search Measure Type of organization • The Patent Search Center will be set up on April 1, 2012
Ⅲ. Expected Results (1/3) Number of Applications Year Fig.4 Number of pending applications, requests for substantive examination and applications concluded at TIPO. (The numbers for 2012-2016 are estimates.)
Ⅲ. Expected Results (3/3) • Expecting concluded cases to exceed incoming cases starting from 2012 • By 2016, pending applications would drop to 78,344 cases • Pending period for examination concluded would be reduced to 24 months
D. Summary • This backlog cleanup project receives tremendous support from various sectors • Filling 39 positions and hiring 170 contracted examiners are the keys to effective reduction of backlogs • TIPO will improve overall examination environment to cleanup patent backlog for better IP protection
Thank you for your patience wei20208@tipo.gov.tw