In order to better reflect the development and needs in the industry, after reviewing the current regulations and opinions from the industry, on September 29, 2020 the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) has announced the partial amendment to the Chapter III (Substantive Examination of Design Patents) in The Examination Guidelines for Patents, which has entered into force on November 1, 2020.
 
The said amendment firstly relaxed the restrictions and requirement for designs of computer-generated icons (CGI) or computer user interfaces (GUI). Before the said amendment, design patent application of CGIs or GUIs should be designated to be applied onto a physical article (e.g. a monitor). However, in view of that due to current technologies, these kinds of CGI/GUI are no longer necessarily fixed to physical displays, and also these kinds of designs are often designed and development by software developers instead of hardware developers, the said amendment has hence relaxed the original restrictions, and allow the applicant to designate such design to apply on “computer software” or similar products not being a physical article. Rules after this change should better serve the needs of the industry.
 
Furthermore, the said amendments also adjusted and relaxed the requirements regarding disclosure in the description and drawings of design patents, expressly indicated that buildings and interior designs can be subjects of design patents, as well as relaxed the requirements on filing divisional applications for design patents. These changes may assist the industry to gain more comprehensive protection for the products.
 
Detailed information regarding the said amendment on Chapter III of the Examination Guidelines for Patents can be found on the TIPO’s website, https://www.tipo.gov.tw/tw/cp-85-881881-d8fd4-1.html (In Chinese).