Starting on September 1, 2024, the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) launched the “Accelerated Examination Program for Reexamination of Invention Patent Applications” (AEPRe) on a trial basis. After one year of implementation, the average examination period under AEPRe was only 22.8 days. Also, the procedure for requesting AEPRe is simple and incurs no official fee. Thus, the program has received positive feedback from applicants and agents. In view of this, TIPO has decided to extend the trial of AEPRe.
 
AEPRe applies to invention patent applications under reexamination in which only some of the claims are rejected after examination. By amending the application based on the claims deemed allowable, the applicant may file a request for AEPRe to expedite the reexamination of the application.
 
From September 1, 2024, to August 25, 2025, TIPO received a total of 45 AEPRe requests and issued examination results for 38 cases. The average examination period from the filing of an AEPRe request to the issuance of an examination result was only 22.8 days. By contrast, it typically takes about 10 to 13 months for applicants to receive reexamination results through the regular process. AEPRe thus benefits applicants seeking to obtain patents more quickly.
 
(Translated and adapted based on the news published on TIPO’s official website)