After the public hearing held in February 2021, the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) published a revised draft of amendments to the Patent Examination Guidelines for Software Inventions. The key points of the amendments are summarized below:
1.  Clarify the criteria for determining the eligibility.
2.  Amend the contents related to the inventive step of software inventions to be consistent with the general guidelines of the inventive step.
3.  Include issues and examples for the examination of inventions related to artificial intelligence.
4.  Miscellaneous
     a. Exempt software-related object inventions from the requirement of structure definitions.
     b. Include sections on the clarity and supportability requirements of the claims.
     c. Assign the burden of proof for product-by-function claims and means-plus-function phrases.
 
(Summarized and translated from the News published on the TIPO’s website)