Executive Yuan Approves Draft Amendments to Patent Act

On October 16, 2002 the Executive Yuan approved additional draft amendments to Articles 11 and 138 of the Patent Law, and submitted the same to the Legislative Yuan for deliberation together with the original draft amendments.

Pursuant to Article 12, Paragraph 4 of the current Patent Law: “Qualifications and management of patent agents shall be separately determined by law; prior to such determination by law, the Patent Agent Regulations shall apply”. Accordingly the Executive Yuan has prepared a draft Patent Agent Law, which was submitted for review by the Legislative Yuan on May 17, 2002. At the same time the Executive Yuan had also submitted draft amendments to the Patent Law to the Legislative Yuan for review, which are intended to strengthen protection for intellectual property rights, accelerate establishment of an innovative environment, and improve the intellectual property rights examination system.

Article 174-1 of the Administrative Procedures Law provides that: “Any orders issued by administrative instruments prior to enforcement of this Law pursuant to Article 7 of the Central Legal Standards Law, and which require legislative basis or delegated authority by legislation, shall be amended or promulgated with legislative basis or delegated authority by legislation within 2 years of this Law entering into force; after such date such orders shall cease to have effect.” As issuance of the Patent Agent Regulations lacked legislative basis, they will cease to have effect upon December 31, 2002. In order to ensure that restrictions on people’s rights and interests or obligations imposed by regulations and orders have proper legal authority, and also that the purpose, contents and scope of such legal authority should be clear and certain, the IPO has prepared further draft amendments to Articles 11 and 138 of the Patent Law.

Main points in the said draft amendments are as follows:

1. Prior to determination of the Patent Agent Law, the competent authorities shall be authorized to issue regulations concerning obtaining, revocation and cancellation of patent agent qualifications, as well as relevant management rules (Article 11).

2. In order to be consistent with the patent agent system, exceptions to management rules issued by the authorized competent authorities shall take effect from the promulgation date (Article 138).