The current patent application practice of Taiwan allows for a patent specification to be filed in a foreign language while recognizing the filing date of the said foreign language version as the filing date of the said patent, provided the Chinese version of the specification is submitted within a designated period. This practice particularly benefits foreign applicants by avoiding delay to the application process in Taiwan due to the need for preparing for Chinese translation.

In current patent law, no limitation is stipulated as to what foreign languages are eligible for this privileged filing process. However, in the new Patent Act passed by the Legislative Yuan on November 29, 2011 and expected to be officially implemented in November 2012, the competent patent authority is expressly empowered to formulate regulations stipulating which foreign language versions are to be accepted, along with other related matters. The legislative reasons explain that if the foreign language eligibility criteria are too broad, "the patent authority would face difficulties when it comes to determining whether an amendment of incorrect translation exceeds the scope disclosed in the foreign language version of the patent specification, and therefore it is necessary to limit the types of foreign language. The Legislative Yuan hence authorizes the competent authority to stipulate related regulations in this regard."

The patent authority, the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO), held the first public hearing regarding "Implementation Measures for Patent Application in Foreign Language" ("Measures") on February 24, 2012. According to the draft Measures, upon implementation of the new Patent Act, English and Japanese will be the only languages eligible for securing a filing date through submission of the foreign language version of a specification. Furthermore, except for annotation of technical terms originating from another foreign language, the submitted foreign language version must be limited to one language only. Should the application fail to comply with this rule, the patent authority will issue notification requiring the applicant to revise it by a designated deadline, and the filing date will effectively be postponed to the date when the revised application is submitted. In other words, if a patent specification written in a foreign language other than English or Japanese is submitted, or one in which certain paragraphs or sentences are written in a different language than the whole, the filing date might be delayed and consequently affect the acceptance of the priority claim. This potential complication could have severe consequences for foreign patent applicants.

Most patent attorneys and agents expect that these Measures will cause unreasonable inconvenience to foreign applicants, since current laws and regulations set no limitation on the languages that may be employed in a foreign language version of a patent specification. In addition, most international patent organizations, such as the WIPO, accept more than one language. Considering the distribution of nationalities represented among foreign applicants applying for patents in Taiwan and the international practice of patent prosecution, participants at the hearing suggested expanding the Measures to other languages. The TIPO responded that it would consider the feasibility of adopting other languages, along with mechanisms to resolve potential issues of comprehension by examiners if languages other than English and Japanese are to be accepted.

As for the "one language" requirement, a common view was expressed by the TIPO and the participating patent attorneys and agents that the tendency to combine paragraphs written in different foreign languages is particularly prevalent in foreign language patent specifications submitted by Japanese applicants. While most attendees considered the one language limitation unnecessary, the TIPO still suggested that patent firms try to communicate this issue with their clients. Meanwhile, the TIPO would discuss the topic further internally.

As mentioned above, the TIPO stated that it would further review draft Measures to account for the concerns expressed at the public hearing. On April 13, 2012, the TIPO held the second public hearing on the revised draft Measures, wherein the number of acceptable foreign languages was expanded to nine: Arabic, English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. Following this second hearing, the TIPO published on May 17, 2012 the further-revised draft Measures, in which the "one language" requirement is deleted. The TIPO stated in a separate notice that patent applicants are still requested to follow the "one language" principle; if it finds that the issue continues to be a concern, the TIPO may consider amending the Measures appropriately. Regardless of the eventual outcome, foreign patent applicants should pay particularly close attention to this issue.