The Taiwan Intellectual Property Office has completed the amendments to Chapters 1, 2, 3, 7, 8 and 9 of Part 3 “Substantive Examination for Design Patents” of the Patent Examination Guidelines. The amended guidelines will become effective on November 1, 2020.
 

The amendments are summarized in the following.
 

1. The disclosure requirements for the specification and drawings are relaxed. According to the amended guidelines, the omission of views from the drawings is not limited to the conditions provided in the current guidelines. Rather, in principle, views that are not contained in the drawings will be simply considered to form no part of the design, and the specification is not required to state the reasons for omitting these views.
 

2. Buildings and interior designs are clearly specified as eligible subject matters for a design patent.
 

3. The requirements for filing a divisional application based on a design patent application are relaxed. In addition to the requirement that a divisional application cannot go beyond the disclosure of the specification and drawings of the original application, the current guidelines further provide that a divisional application cannot be filed if the original application does not substantively disclose two or more designs. Such a provision is canceled in the amended guidelines.
 

4. The regulations for graphic image designs are amended. The current guidelines explain that the article to which a graphic image design is applied should be a screen, display, etc. After the amendments, the guidelines clearly indicate that the article to which a graphic image design is applied can also be a “computer program product,” and the drawings do not have to show a non-claimed screen, display, etc. to which the graphic image design is applied.
 

5. Miscellaneous points:
(1) the disclosure requirements for a design claiming colors are further explained;
(2) the explanation about “the shape of an article solely dictated by its function” is amended; and
(3) the explanation about the criteria for determining the novelty and creativeness of a design claiming colors is amended.
 

(Translated and summarized from the News and the attachment announced on the website of the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office)