Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs Issues Statement On Priority Claims

by Mary Swire, for LawAndTax-News.com, Hong Kong

22 January 2008

The European Patent Office announced earlier this month that it has received official information from the Intellectual Property Office of the Republic of China (Taiwan) that the Ministry of Economic Affairs has issued the following announcement regarding priority claims:

"Nationals of WTO members who apply for a patent with the Republic of China may claim priority rights if the patent was filed under the PCT or EPC with a designated country that is a WTO member, and that such application is deemed valid under the law of the designated country."

The revised European Patent Convention (EPC) entered into force at the beginning of January, providing Europe with a new legal framework for patent protection.

The convention governs the granting of European patents by the European Patent Office (EPO) and applies throughout the 32 member states of the European Patent Organisation.

The Patent Cooperation treaty, meanwhile, is an instrument of the World Intellectual Property Organization, and makes it possible to seek patent protection for an invention simultaneously in each of a large number of countries by filing an “international” patent application.

Such an application may be filed by anyone who is a national or resident of a PCT contracting State. It may generally be filed with the national patent office of the contracting State of which the applicant is a national or resident or, at the applicant’s option, with the International Bureau of WIPO in Geneva.

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