Newsletter
NO RETROSPECTIVE PROTEC-TION FOR MICROORGANISM PER SE INVENTIONS
The 1997 amendments to the Patent Law took effect on 1 January 2002, the date of Taiwan's accession to the WTO. Prior to the amendments, Article 21 Paragraph 2 of the law provided that an invention patent could be granted for a mi-croorganism per se invention, but that, in case of a patent application filed by a foreigner whose home country has not yet formed a reciprocity with Taiwan for providing the same protection, such protection is available only until one year after the ROC accession to the General Agree-ment on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the entry into force of the GATT Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. The above limitation was repealed in the 1997 amendments. The Intellectual Property Office stated in its interpretation letter dated 22 April 2002 that if a patent application filed by a national of a WTO member country that had no such treaty or agreement with the ROC before 1 January 2002 for a microorganism per se inven-tion before 1 January 2002 and no decision as to grant of patent was rendered by that date, a pat-ent could not be granted for the microorganism per se invention even after Taiwan's accession to the WTO on 1 January 2002.