In view of technical developments and globalization, applicants are actively seeking international protection for the results of their research and development, causing the number of patent applications filed in multiple countries to increase significantly. This increase prolongs the examination pendency and needs more examination manpower. To tackle this increase, the US and Japan, Japan and Korea and US and Europe have respectively adopted bilateral cooperative Patent Prosecution Highway Programs. Under such programs, the signed country can utilize the information of the search and examination in the other signed country, which is submitted by the applicants, to accelerate the examination, reduce backlog and improve quality of examination.

Although Taiwan has not yet signed any Patent Prosecution Highway Programs with other countries, TIPO (Taiwan Intellectual Property Office) does intend, however, to provide a system for accelerated examination. Referring to the spirit of the Patent Prosecution Highway systems, TIPO promulgated a one-year trial Mechanism for Accelerating Patent Examination Procedure on January 1, 2009 and is now available throughout 2009.

Applicants who apply for Accelerated Patent Examination Procedure do not need to pay any official fees. However, applications are currently limited to those in which corresponding foreign applications have been substantively examined and allowed. In principle, TIPO will render examination results within 6 months after the application form and necessary documents are submitted in full. This mechanism should shorten examination pendency, but does not guarantee that Taiwanese patent applications will be allowed just because the corresponding foreign applications have been allowed. Differences with respect to the regulations and systems between the countries still exist.

Most of the corresponding foreign applications of the Taiwanese invention patent applications are from U.S., Japan and Europe. However, applicable foreign applications for this procedure are not limited to any specific country or region.

The TIPO hopes applicants submit examination information of the corresponding foreign applications most relevant to the Taiwanese invention patent application so that examination can be accelerated most effectively. Therefore, the examination of other pending Taiwanese patent applications should also be indirectly accelerated so all patent applicants will benefit from this mechanism.