ELIGIBILITY FOR PATENT AN-NUITY REDUCTIONS

09/01/2004

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According to Article 3 of the amended Regula-tions for Reduction and Exemption of Patent Annual Fees, which took effect on 1 July 2004, a patentee that is a natural person, a school, or a small or medium-sized enterprise, may apply to the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) for a re-duction in patent annuities. In an announcement dated 16 July 2004, the IPO gave the following explanation of the scope of eligibility for such reductions:

A school as referred to in the Regulations means a public or registered private educa-tional institution within Taiwan, or a foreign educational institution recognized by the ROC Ministry of Education (MOE). With regard to the criteria applied by the MOE for recogniz-ing foreign educational institutions, the MOE stated in a letter to the IPO dated 8 April 2004:

"The institutions named in the reference lists of institutes of higher education in various countries compiled by the Ministry of Education are institutes of higher edu-cation registered or approved in the coun-tries where they are located, on which in-formation has been gathered by the Min-istry of Foreign Affairs and its overseas missions. In the case of the United States of America, the list includes information on lawfully registered regional and spe-cialist institutions throughout the US. Education gained at an institution named in one of the reference lists may be recog-nized in the ROC."

If a patentee is a foreign educational institu-tion, the IPO will base its determination of whether it is eligible for a reduction of patent annuities on the above MOE reference lists.

The Regulations define a small or me-dium-sized enterprise (SME) eligible to apply for a reduction in patent fees as an enterprise conforming with the provisions of Article 2 Paragraph 1 Subparagraph 1 or 2 of the Stan-dards for Identifying a Small or Me-dium-Sized Enterprise. In other words, an SME in manufacturing, construction, mining, or quarrying is one with paid-in capital not exceeding NT$80 million, and an SME in another sector (farming, forestry, fishing, or animal husbandry; water, electricity or gas supply; commerce; transportation; warehous-ing or communications; finance, insurance or real estate; industrial and commercial services; social and personal services) is one with op-erating revenues in the preceding year not exceeding NT$100 million.