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Waiver of Excess Page Fee for Submission of Sequence Listing in Electronic File Format

Kate Shu-Yin Chu

The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) announced on 15 May 2014 that excess page fees can be waived for submission of a sequence listing in electronic file format.  According to Paragraph 6 of Rule 17 of the Enforcement Rules of the Patent Act, where a patent application for invention contains disclosure of one or more nucleotide and/or amino acid sequences, a sequence listing complying with the standard provided by the Specific Patent Agency shall be submitted as a separate part of the description; in addition thereto, a copy of the said sequence listing in computer-readable format may be submitted.  Therefore, in Taiwan, the sequence listing is regarded as a part of the specification.  However, since the contents of the sequence listing are non-textual, examination of the sequence listing focuses on comparison and search rather than any explicitly described ideas.  Therefore, the IPO announced that "when the applicant submits an electronic file of a sequence listing according to Paragraph 6 of Rule 17 of the Enforcement Rules of the Patent Act, any excess page fee that would be incurred for including the sequence listing in the Chinese specification can be waived."

 
In the US, Japan, Europe and PCT patent practice, a sequence listing complying with a certain standard will not be included in the calculation of excess page fees.  The new IPO practice is not only consistent with international practice but also reduces the costs incurred by the applicant.  However, in Taiwan, electronic filing is not very common in Taiwan.  Most applicants still file patent applications on paper, in which case the sequence listing must also be printed on paper for submission with the IPO, thereby limiting the opportunity to reduce use of paper.  In contrast, the USPTO's electronic filing is widely used.  As a result, when electronic filing is used, the sequence listing can be submitted as a text file and will not be considered in the calculation of excess page fees.  Alternatively, an applicant can submit the application on paper and include the electronic copy of the sequence listing text files on compact disc.
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