The Guidelines for Patent Invalidation Action Proceedings were announced in March 2018. In order to ensure the Guidelines conform to practical needs, the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) has consulted external opinions and further reviewed the Guidelines internally. Further amendments will be made to the Guidelines. The key points of these amendments are as follows:

(1) Relaxing the procedure for holding an oral proceeding: at the request by one of the parties, the oral proceeding may be held without the consent of the other party.

(2) Listing the subsequent procedures of the TIPO after the parties have filed relevant documents.

(3) Listing the types of documents that may be submitted before holding the oral proceedings.

(4) Where any of the parties considers that the examiner has any reasons to withdraw, the party shall file the request for withdrawal with reasons within 10 days from receiving the notice of the oral proceedings.

(5) If any one of the parties fails to attend the proceeding timely, the party can attend the oral proceeding only when the moderator considers that the party’s attendance may facilitate the clarification of the issues of the case.