Newsletter
TAIWAN AND NEW ZEALAND RECIPROCALLY RECOGNIZE PATENT AND TRADEMARK PRIORITY
On 30 October 1998 the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in New Zealand and the New Zealand Commerce and Industry Office signed an Arrangement on the Protection of Industrial Property Rights. On 9 November 2000, New Zealand announced that it had con-cluded its legal procedures regarding the ar-rangement, and had completed notification and exchange of letters with Taiwan. Accordingly, on 9 January 2001 the IPO announced that the arrangement had taken effect as of 19 December 2000.
Under the arrangement, nationals of either party may each claim priority with the patent and trademark authorities of the party, in accordance with the relevant laws.
The main points concerning priority claims in Taiwan include:
An applicant of any nationality may claim prior-ity under the Trademark Law based on an ap-plication for registration of a trademark, service mark, certification mark or collective mark filed on or after 19 December 2000 in New Zealand or any other country with which the ROC has a reciprocal trademark priority arrangement. Currently, in addition to New Zealand, the ROC has reciprocal trademarks arrangements with the USA, Australia, France, the European Union Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market, and Austria.
Applicants of New Zealand nationality may claim priority under the Patent Law based on of a patent application first filed on or after 19 De-cember 2000 in New Zealand or any other country having a reciprocity with the ROC for patent priority claim purposes. Other countries with which the ROC currently has reciprocity are Australia, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, the USA, France, Liechtenstein, the UK and Austria.