On November 16, 2022, the Taiwan IP Office announced that, from January 2023 onwards, patent and trademarks applicants will be offered the option to receive electronic Patent/Trademark Certificates instead of paper copies. This marks another important step for TIPO towards going green and paperless.
According to TIPO's announcement and our understanding, assumingly since January 3, 2023 (i.e. the first working day after the New Year holidays), when attending to payment of registration fee in the case of trademarks or issue fee and the first annuity in the case of patents, applicants will be required to specify whether they wish to have the Certificate issued in electronic format or paper copy.
If the option goes for electronic Certificate, applicants will be allowed to later apply for a paper Certificate with payment of an official fee. However, to the best of our knowledge, proceeding the other way around will not be an option. TIPO will shed more light on the new practice in coming December.
The electronic Certificate will be issued in PDF-format and downloadable within 6 months after the applicant receives TIPO's notice of issuance of the Certificate. It will bear fraud proof designs along with an authentication QR code which links to TIPO's webpage showing the most updated information of the patent/trademark registration.
It is unclear how long this two-track system will last, although many believe that TIPO's ultimate goal is to eliminate the paper copy option altogether.
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