On May 21, 2025, during the Taiwan–France Economic Dialogue, TIPO Director General Cheng-Wei Liao and Director General Pascal Faure of the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI, France) signed a Statement of Intent (SOI) on the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) between TIPO and INPI. The signing was witnessed by Representative Hao Pei-chih, Taiwan’s Representative to France, and Franck Paris, Director of the French Office in Taipei. The new PPH program will take effect on July 1, 2025, symbolizing a major milestone in Taiwan–France IP cooperation.

The PPH program is a mechanism that speeds up the patent examination process by allowing patent offices to share examination results and search reports, reducing duplicative work and improving both efficiency and quality. The Taiwan–France PPH will allow companies to secure patent rights more quickly and streamline their global patent portfolios.

The first TIPO-USPTO PPH program began in 2011, and TIPO has since launched PPH programs with five other partners: Japan, Spain, South Korea, Poland, and Canada. France is now the seventh partner, expanding Taiwan’s global PPH network. According to TIPO statistics, the average pendency for PPH requests in 2024 was just 4.4 months, significantly shorter than the general average of 14.15 months.

Director General Liao emphasized that France was Taiwan’s 18th largest trading partner globally in 2024 and its third largest within the EU, with bilateral trade reaching US$6.538 billion. As a key European economic partner, France plays a vital role in Taiwan’s innovation ecosystem. The Taiwan–France PPH agreement enhances a friendlier cross-border patent application environment, helping businesses secure faster patent approvals and gain a competitive edge. Moving forward, TIPO and INPI will continue to deepen cooperation to support the intellectual property needs of industries in both countries and promote sustainable growth.

• Publish Date : 2025-06-10
• Update : 2025-06-10
• Organization : International Legal Affairs Office
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