At present, the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) provides several programs for applicants to accelerate examination of invention patent applications, including: (1) the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH), (2) the Accelerated Examination Program (AEP), and (3) the Accelerated Examination Program for Reexamination Applications (AEP-Re). Among these approaches, the PPH and AEP have been implemented for many years and are relatively known to applicants; hence, they will not be further elaborated here.
As for the AEP-Re program, a relatively new scheme, it was implemented on September 1, 2024, having taken effect for one year. This program applies to reexamination cases which have received the first Office Action rejecting part of the claims while allowing the rest. If the applicant is willing to amend the claims at the reexamination stage to conform to the scope of claims allowed at the first examination stage, the reexamination case may be eligible for accelerated examination under the AEP-Re program.
To avoid confusion, applicants should note that AEP-Re and AEP are two distinct programs. The general Accelerated Examination Program (AEP) is available at both the initial examination stage and the reexamination stage, whereas AEP-Re applies only at the reexamination stage and only to applications that meet the specific conditions described above. Moreover, the bases for requesting access to the two programs differ; applicants should carefully distinguish between them before filing a request.
It is noteworthy that at the end of August this year, the TIPO announced the results of one year of implementing AEP-Re and further declared that the program would continue on a trial basis. According to the announcement, during the approximately one-year period since the program’s launch on September 1, 2024, the TIPO received a total of 45 requests under AEP-Re and issued examination results in 38 of those cases. Statistics show that the average period from filing an AEP-Re request to receiving an examination result was only 22.8 days, which is significantly shorter than the average examination time of about 10 to 13 months for ordinary reexamination cases. Coupled with its simple application procedure and the absence of any official fee, the AEP-Re program has received highly favorable evaluations from many applicants and practitioners.
In summary, the official data demonstrate that the TIPO will continue to foster a favorable examination environment for patent applicants, especially as the AEP-Re mechanism has gained wide recognition. We recommend that applicants meeting the eligibility requirements for AEP-Re make full use of this program to expedite the acquisition of patent rights. Where appropriate, applicants may also consider filing divisional applications concurrently to pursue different claim scopes, thereby ensuring the completeness of patent protection.