Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) is planning to lower the annual fee of a design patent, i.e., the official fee for a ten-year design patent will be reduced from N.T.$42,000 to N.T.$25,000. TIPO has held a public hearing to gather public opinions, and is planning to apply the new standard of official fee from May of 2011. Cultural and design industries will benefit most from the above adjustment.

The Commissioner of TIPO stated that although the standard of patent official fee was amended in January of 2010, whereby the annual fee of a design patent was lowered by 72%, the annual fee is still higher than in other countries. Therefore leaders of the respective industries have asked TIPO to lower the annual fee once more.

The Commissioner also stated that the numbers of applications for invention patents and utility models have increased year by year, but the applications for design patents have remained the same (about 6,000 to 7,000 per year). The primary reason is the perceived high annual fee charged by TIPO. Although the Financial Department of TIPO may oppose this proposal since their income would be reduced by about N.T. $30 million per year, such reduction will encourage the cultural and design industries to protect their ideas by obtaining patents, for example: the appearance of electronic devices or the shape of ceramics.