TIPO to Reduce Design Patent Annuities
Posted on Thursday, April 21, 2011
TIPO Design Patent Fee Structure Existing Patent Fees New, Proposed Fees Fees for Qualified Schools, Natural Persons, SMBs 1st ~ 3rd Year 2,500 1,000 200 4th ~ 6th Year 3,500 2,000 800 7th Year Onward 5,000 3,000 3,000 Total Patent Annuities 38,000 21,000 15,000 Application Fee & Issue Fee 4,000 4,000 4,000 Total 42,000 25,000 19,000 Fee Reduction / 17,000 23,000 Reduction Rate / 40.5% 54.8% Source: TIPO Public Hearing
by Anita Li, NAIP Editorial
On 1 July 2011, new patent annuities for Taiwan design patents will go into effect. The draft of the new fee structure was presented at a public hearing on 22 March in order to collect general opinions and feedback before submission to the Taiwan Executive Yuan to finalize the draft.
Goal: Increase Design Patent Applications
At the public hearing, Director General of TIPO Wang Mei-hua stated that, although the number of invention patent applications has steadily increased in recent years, the number of design patent applications has actually been gradually decreasing. Director Wang also put forth the question that, although the patent annuities for design patent were already significantly reduced on 1 January 1, 2010, is there still room for further reduction? Director Wang indicated that considering the high percentage of small to medium size businesses (SMB) that account for Taiwan’s industrial make-up, the stagnant growth in design patent applications may suggest that design patent fees may still be too high.
In order to facilitate the government’s goal in supporting the development of Taiwan’s cultural and creative industry, TIPO hopes to increase the number of design patent applications by adjusting design patent annuities. TIPO believes a reduction in design patent annuities may offer practical assistance to natural persons and small enterprises that are comparatively weak financially. Lower overall costs would help better the environment for SMB in Taiwan.
Furthermore, TIPO also pointed out that feedback from industry representatives, who said considering Taiwan’s economic scale, the overall costs of a Taiwan design patent is rather high in comparison with those of other countries. Therefore, TIPO conducted research into the total design patent costs in European countries, the US, Japan, Korea, China and Australia, when drafting the proposal.
Based on this research, TIPO proposed the following fee reductions:
Design patent annuities: NT$ 1,000 per year from the first to the third year; NT$ 2,000 per year from the fourth to sixth year, and NT$ 3,000 from the seventh year onward. Under the new fee structure, over a period of 10 years the total amount of patent annuities would be NT$ 21,000. If including the NT$ 3,000 application fee and NT$ 1,000 issue fee, the total charge is NT$ 25,000. In comparison with the existing fee schedule, total costs have been reduced by around 40.5%, or NT$ 17,000
Furthermore, under the new fee structure, applicants who are schools, natural persons or SMBs will receive additional patent annuities discounts from the first to sixth years. During the first to third year, they need only pay NT$ 200 patent annuities per year, a reduction of NT$ 800. During the fourth to sixth years, the fee will be reduced by NT$1,200 to only NT$ 800 per year. Over then 10 year lifetime of a design patent, total official fee costs, including the patent annuities, application fee and issue fee, would be NT$ 19,000. In comparison to the existing fee schedule, the reduction is around 54.8%, or NT$ 23,000.
Note: Effective on 1 July 2011
Units: NTD
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