Taiwan yesterday inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on a “Patent Prosecution Highway” (PPH) with South Korea in a bid to accelerate intellectual property rights reviews.
“The signing of the PPH marks the foundation of Taiwanese and South Korean patent review cooperation,” Intellectual Property Office Director-General Wang Mei-hua (王美花) told a press conference in Taipei.
South Korea is the fourth country to have inked a PPH agreement with Taiwan following the US, Japan and Spain, Wang said.
Representative to South Korea Joseph Shih (石定) said that the two nations are each other’s sixth-largest trading partners, with bilateral trade valued at more than US$30 billion last year.
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Taiwan’s exports to South Korea totaled about US$15 billion last year, with 65 percent of the goods being integrated circuits, Shih said, adding that the figure shows South Korea’s importance to Taiwanese companies in terms of filing patent rights for technology products.
Wang said the memorandum, which takes effect on July 1, would shorten the examination period for patent filings by one-third, and mainly benefit companies in the electronic and semiconductor sectors.
The Intellectual Property Office said that South Korean companies — including LG Chem Ltd, Samsung Display Co and Samsung Electronics — applied for 2,127 patent right reviews in Taiwan last year.
Taiwanese companies, such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科), applied for 955 patent reviews in South Korea last year, the office said.
The office said under the PPH agreement, Taiwanese companies can apply for patent rights for an invention in Taiwan and South Korea at the same time, and if the South Korean government approves the patent application ahead of Taiwan’s, the companies could use the ruling from South Korea to file a fast-track examination application to Taiwan’s government for a patent.
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The examination period could be reduced from an average of 33 months to just 11 months, which is an important improvement for information technology companies, where technology develops very quickly, the office said.
Taiwan and South Korea also signed a memorandum of understanding on the Priority Documents Exchange program.
The program enables electronic transmission of priority documents between Taiwan and South Korea, the office said, adding that the paper-free program simplifies cross-country application procedures, and saves time and money for applicants.
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