On September 1, 2024, the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) implemented the “Accelerated Examination Program for Reexamination of Invention Patent Applications” (AEPRe) on a trial basis. The trial will last for one year. The AEPRe applies to invention patent applications rejected after substantive examination, and is aimed to improve the efficiency of the reexamination by using the existing results of the substantive examination. To be eligible for the AEPRe, an application should have only some of the claims rejected according to the grounds of the decision of rejection, and should be amended by canceling the rejected claims or rewriting the non-rejected dependent claims into independent claims. The applicant can receive reexamination results within six months once the AEPRe request is accepted. Further explanations on the AEPRe are provided below.
 
The requirements for requesting the AEPRe are as follows:

1. Eligible cases: invention patent applications wherein only some of the claims are rejected according to the grounds of the decision of rejection are eligible for the AEPRe.
2. Timing for request: an AEPRe request should be filed within the period from the service of the TIPO’s notice stating that the reexamination will be initiated shortly to the issuance of the first examination report in the reexamination stage.
3. Required amendments: amendments should be filed in accordance with Article 49 of the Patent Act and conform to the following forms:

1. Canceling the rejected claims indicated in the grounds of the decision of rejection;
2. Simply rewriting the non-rejected dependent claims indicated in the grounds of the decision of rejection into independent claims.

The amendments can also include renumbering the claims, adjusting the dependency relationships of the claims and introducing new dependent claims.
 
Filing an AEPRe request will not incur any official fees. Where the AEPRe request does not meet the requirements, the TIPO will notify the applicant, and the application will be examined under the normal procedures (the applicant may file the request again to meet the requirements). Where the AEPRe request meets the requirements, the TIPO will expedite the reexamination directly without notice, and will issue an examination report or render a decision within six months after the date on which the AEPRe request is filed.
 
(Elaborated based on the Hot News announced on the website of the TIPO)