On August 29, 2024, the TIPO of China announced that the Accelerated Examination Program for Re-examination (AEPRe) of patent applications for invention will begin on September 1, 2024.

According to statistics, in 2023, the number of re-examinations of patents for invention in Taiwan, China, was 6,538, the average issuance period for the first Office Action (OA) was 10.1 months, and the average closing period was 13.1 months. According to the assessment of the TIPO of China, through the AEPRe, applicants can expect to receive examination results within 2 to 3 months.

To apply for the AEPRe, the following requirements need to be met:

1. Requirement for eligibility of the case：re-examination of the patent applications for invention where the reason for the rejection decision of the preliminary examination is "only some of the claims are rejected";

2. Requirement for the filing time: the applicant shall file an AEPRe request, which may be submitted online, within the period from "notified by TIPO that the invention application will soon be undergoing Reexamination" to "received first Reexamination OA"; and

3. Application of the eligible claim amendments: applicants shall make amendments according to Article 49 of the Patent Act of Taiwan, China, when submitting the request, and all of the amendments should conform with the following circumstances:

a. Delete claims that have grounds for rejection in the rejection decision of the preliminary examination; and

b. Re-write the claims that are not rejected in the rejection decision of the preliminary examination to independent claims.

The foregoing amendments shall be accompanied by adjustments in the numbering of the claims, the reference relationships, and the addition of new dependent claims.

(Source: Unitalen)