Taiwan jurisdiction report: Proposed patent law amendments

The primary amendments introduced into this draft bill are summarised below:

A grace period is allowed for claiming priority and requesting substantive examination.

According to the current Patent Law, priority can be claimed within 12 months for an invention or utility model application from the filing date, and a priority claim must be filed within six months from the filing date for a design application. The draft bill proposes a grace period of two months for claiming priority.