February 2005: Taiwan Patent Coverage

 
The Taiwan [Chinese Taipei - Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu] revised Patent Law took effect for patent documents published from 1 August 2004 onwards. As a result, the numbering format for TW examined patent documents has also changed.

The new number format consists of 7 digits: TW-XNNNNNN where the letter “X” indicates the patent document type.

- I for Invention patent e.g. I220001
- M for Utility Model e.g. M240001
- D for Design patent e.g. D100001

This is followed by a 6-digit serial number, with the new serial number range starting at 220001 as of the publication date 01/08/2004.

The first of these new publications are scheduled to appear in DWPI First View and DWPI in early March 2005.

The following number standards will be used for the New Law documents in DWPI to avoid creating duplicates with the existing TW patent number series in DWPI.

TW Examined Patents Derwent Kind Code   Derwent patent number format Derwent application number format
Old Law A   TW-NNNNNN-A YYYYTW-nnnnnn
New Law B1   TW-NNNNNN-B1 YYYYTW-nnnnnn

Example: Old Law Gazette Entry
592636
  DWPI Patent Number
DWPI Application Number		 TW592936A
2003TW118606

Example: New Law Gazette Entry
 I220010
  DWPI Patent Number
DWPI Application Number		 TW220010B1
2003TW101562

Please note that we are currently investigating the feasibility of retrospectively converting the kind code of the Old Law TW patents in DWPI from “A” to “B” for greater consistency of searching across Old and New Law TW examined data. Customers will be notified in advance should this change take place.