Central News Agency – 2025/5/21 14:53
(Central News Agency reporter Liu Qian-ling, Taipei, 21st) The Ministry of Economic Affairs said today that the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) signed by Taiwan and France will be implemented on July 1st. Through cooperation between the two sides, it will reduce duplicate examinations and improve efficiency, which will help companies to develop global patent allocation. The Ministry of Economic Affairs has cooperated with the United States, Japan, Spain, Korea, Poland, Canada and other countries on PPH, and has now signed a cooperation agreement with France, further expanding the scope of PPH cooperation.
Liao Cheng-wei, Director of the Intellectual Property Office of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, attended the 2025 Taiwan-France Economic and Trade Dialogue Conference today and jointly signed the Taiwan-France “Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) Cooperation Letter of Intent” at the French Industrial Property Office. Hao Pei-zhi, Representative to France, and Franck Paris, Director of the French Institute in Taiwan, witnessed the event on the spot.
The Intelligence Property Office of the Ministry of Economic Affairs issued a press release today stating that PPH is a system to accelerate bilateral patent examinations. By sharing the search information and examination results of the patent specialized agencies of both parties, which can reduce duplicate examinations and effectively improve the efficiency and quality of examinations. The Taiwan-France PPH helps companies obtain patents quickly and is more conducive to their global patent allocation.
Liao Cheng-wei mentioned that in 2014, France was Taiwan’s 18th largest trading partner and Taiwan’s third largest trading partner in the European Union. The bilateral trade volume reached USD 6.538 billion. France is an important trading partner of Taiwan in Europe. The PPH cooperation between Taiwan and France is part of establishing a more friendly environment for multinational patent applications. Companies will be able to obtain patent approval more quickly through PPH and seize market advantages.
The Intellectual Property Office explained that since TIPO have begun PPH cooperation with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in 2011, it has successively signed PPH agreements with six countries, including Japan, Spain, South Korea, Poland and Canada. Now France has become Taiwan’s seventh PPH partner, further expanding the PPH cooperation territory.
According to statistics from the TIPO, the average review time for PPH in Taiwan in 2014 was 4.4 months, a significant improvement in patent examination efficiency compared to the general average review time of 14.15 months. (Editor: Chang Ruo-yao) 1140521
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