The "2024 New Southbound Intellectual Property Conference" was held from June 18th (Tuesday) to 19th (Wednesday), 2024, at National Taiwan University in Taipei. The official representatives of the intellectual property offices and patent experts from India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam were invited as the speakers of the conference to provide in-depth analysis of the latest developments and trends in local patent practices.

The speakers from India shared that the Indian Patent Law has been amended nine times in the past 10 years. In order to encourage small, medium and start-up enterprises (including international companies) to file patent applications in India, the Indian Patent Office has granted up to 80% fee reduction to qualified small, medium and start-up enterprises. Moreover, the applicants can request accelerated examination and file the applications electronically. The Indian Patent Office also implements the "Intellectual Property Protection Plan (SIPP) for Startups", which has accomplished good results and has significantly increased the patent filings from new startups.

The Indonesian Patent Office has fully adopted electronic filings. In general, the patent examinations at the Patent Office take 4-6 years; however, the pendency can be shorten to 2-3 years through the ASEAN Patent Examination Cooperation Program (ASPEC) or the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) with Japan and Korea Patent Offices.

Malaysia pays special attention to the relevant regulations on the deposit of microorganisms after the country joined the Budapest Treaty on June 30, 2022. Applicants can be exempted from the obligation to deposit microorganisms in Malaysia if the microorganisms are deposited with an international depository institution in a member state of the Budapest Treaty, and the deposits must be completed before filing the applications and the deposit documents shall be supplemented within 16 months after filings.

The Philippine Intellectual Property Office stimulates the country's innovative development through IP policies. The pendency of invention patent applications at the Philippine Intellectual Property Office is quite long. The applicants can request PPH and ASPEC to speed up the examination. The Philippine Intellectual Property Office has taken many measures to improve the quality of patent Singapore is committed to creating a friendly IP business environment. IPOS (Singapore Intellectual Office) is responsible for the examination of patent and trademark applications. Applicants can file the applications request searches in Chinese and English. Singapore has joined the GPPH to connect the world and ASEAN countries. Singapore promotes the 2030 Intellectual Property Strategy, positioning Singapore to become a global IP dispute resolution center, and established Asia's only international commercial court in 2015.

Thailand proposed the draft amendments to the patent law in 2022. The key points of the amendments include: shortening the substantive examination time for invention patent applications within three years after the filing date, adding mechanisms such as the laying-open system; and in response to preparations to join the Hague Agreement, derivative designs and partial designs are introduced; and the patent term for design patents has been extended to 15 years.
 
Southeast Asian countries and India generally face lengthy patent examination procedures and backlog problems. In recent years, many countries have made efforts to improve the efficiency of the patent examination process and enhance the quality of patent examination by means of introducing amendments to the patent laws. The Director General of Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO), Mr. Liao, Cheng-Wei indicated that the TIPO also faced the similar problem of lengthy examination procedures and backlog ten years ago. However, the pendency time at the TIPO has been shortened from 47 months to 14 months currently. The TIPO would share the experiences in clearing the patent backlog and is willing to cooperate with the patent offices in the other countries.

This congress has attracted more than 210 attendees from industry, government, and academia. The attendees of the congress fully exchanged opinions and experiences with experts from Southeast Asian countries and India. The TIPO, the Taiwan Patent Attorneys Association, and the Taiwan Group of Asian Patent Attorney Association hope that through the interactions and practical analysis in the congress, the attendees may have a more comprehensive understanding of the patent system and judicial practices in Southeast Asia and India. At the same time, the Taiwanese companies or patent applicants could deploy the patent portfolios based on the information released from the congress.
 
(Elaborated based on the news published by the TIPO.)