The Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (referred to as “TIPO”) announced a revision of “Program for Deferred Substantive Examination of Invention Patent and Design Patent Applications” which will be coming into force from January 1, 2025. Compared with the current regulations, this revision relaxes the timing for applicants to apply for a deferment of substantive examination.

If the applicant has applied for a substantive examination for an invention patent application, he/she may apply for a deferment of substantive examination under any of the following circumstances:

• The invention patent application is in the preliminary examination stage and the applicant has not received the first notice of office action.
• The invention patent application is in the re-examination stage and the applicant has not received the first notice of office action. (newly added in this revision)

However, the application for the deferment of substantive examination will be deemed unfit if (1) the substantive examination is applied by a third party, (2) the invention application is subjected to a Priority Examination, an Accelerated Examination Program (AEP) or a Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH), or (3) a period of three years has elapsed after the filing date of the invention patent application.

The applicant of a design patent application may apply for a deferment of substantive examination under any of the following circumstances:

• The design patent application is in the preliminary examination stage and the applicant has not received the first office action.
• The design patent application is in the re-examination stage and the applicant has not received the first office action. (newly added in this revision)

However, the application for the deferment will be deemed unfit if (1) the design patent application is subjected to an Accelerated Examination Program (AEP), or (2) a period of one years has elapsed after the filing date of the design patent application.

The application for the deferment is required to declare the date for continued substantive examination which is not later than three years from the filing date for an invention patent and not later than one year from the filing date of the design patent application.

The applicant may withdraw the application for the deferment of substantive examination for his/her patent application, however, once the application for the deferment of substantive examination is withdrawn, no further application for the deferment of substantive examination may be made to the patent application.

The early publication date of an invention patent application will not be affected even if the invention patent application is subjected to a deferment of substantive examination.