Taiwan patent and trademark deadlines at a glance

Time limits in Taiwan patent and trademark prosecution are of two kinds, and the kind decides whether more time is available. A period fixed by the Patent Act or the Trademark Act itself, such as the period for filing priority documents, is a statutory period. Under the examination guidelines of the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO), it cannot be extended at the applicant’s request (for patents, unless the Patent Act itself provides otherwise). A period that TIPO sets in a notice, such as the time to respond to an office action or to file a missing power of attorney, is a designated period. An extension may be requested, with reasons, before it expires, and the period stated in TIPO’s notice governs.

Two tables follow, one for patents and one for trademarks. Each row gives the time limit, the day it is counted from, whether it can be extended, and the provision it rests on, linked to the official English translation where there is one. A section after the tables explains how periods are counted. The tables follow the Patent Act as last amended on May 4, 2022 (in force since July 1, 2022) and the Trademark Act as last amended on May 24, 2023 (in force since May 1, 2024).

Patent deadlines

The rows follow an application from filing to grant, then the remedies after a rejection, the fees that keep a patent in force, and invalidation. In the fourth column, “statutory period” means a period that cannot be extended at the applicant’s request, unless the Patent Act itself provides otherwise.

Step	Time limit	Counted from	Can it be extended?	Basis
File in Taiwan with a priority claim	12 months (invention, utility model); six months (design). Under TIPO’s examination guidelines, six months where either the first application or the Taiwan application is a design application.	The filing date of the first application (the earliest priority date where two or more priorities are claimed). The 12 months are counted from the day following that filing date up to the filing date accorded in Taiwan.	Statutory period. A priority claim in an invention or utility model application filed after the 12 months have expired will not be accepted.	Patent Act, Arts. 28, 120 and 142; Enforcement Rules of the Patent Act, Arts. 25 and 41; TIPO Patent Examination Guidelines, Part I, Chapter 1 and Chapter 7 (in Chinese)
Submit the priority document	16 months (invention, utility model); 10 months (design)	The earliest priority date	Statutory period; it cannot be extended. If the document is not submitted within the period, the priority claim is deemed not to have been made.	Patent Act, Arts. 29, 120 and 142
Reinstate a priority claim unintentionally left out of, or incompletely declared in, an application filed in time	16 months (invention, utility model); 10 months (design). The fee for the request, the required declaration and the priority document are all due within that same period.	The earliest priority date	Statutory period. If it is missed, it cannot be restored. The procedure does not extend the 12 months.	Patent Act, Arts. 29(4), 17(4), 120 and 142(3)
Submit the Chinese translation of an application filed in a foreign language	According to TIPO, four months (invention, design) and two months (utility model)	The date the foreign-language documents were filed	Designated period. An extension may be requested before the period expires, up to a total of six months from that date. The period stated in TIPO’s notice for the individual application governs.	TIPO patent FAQ on Chinese translations; Patent Act, Arts. 25, 106 and 125
Supplement an application after TIPO’s notice, for example by filing a missing power of attorney	Under TIPO’s examination guidelines, as a rule four months (invention, design) and two months (utility model)	As set out in TIPO’s notice	Designated period. Extendable by two months on a reasoned request filed before it expires (utility model: by two months and then, on a further reasoned request, another two). As a rule the total does not exceed six months. The period stated in TIPO’s notice governs.	TIPO Patent Examination Guidelines, Part I, Chapter 16 (in Chinese); Enforcement Rules of the Patent Act, Art. 6
Request substantive examination of an invention application	Three years. If no request is filed within that period, the application is deemed to have been withdrawn.	The filing date	Statutory period. Where a divisional application is filed, or an application is converted into an invention patent application, after the three years have expired, substantive examination may be requested within 30 days after the division or conversion.	Patent Act, Art. 38
Respond to an office action on an invention application	TIPO normally sets two months for applicants residing in Taiwan and three months for applicants residing in other countries	The date on which the notification is served	Designated period. One extension may be requested, with reasons stated, before the designated period expires: two months and three months respectively, so that the total designated period does not, in principle, exceed four months and six months. The period stated in TIPO’s notice governs.	Patent Act, Art. 46; Enforcement Rules of the Patent Act, Art. 6; TIPO patent FAQ on office actions; TIPO Patent Q&A (in Chinese)
Respond to an office action on a design application	TIPO’s published guidance gives two months for applicants residing in Taiwan and three months for applicants residing in other countries	As set out in TIPO’s notice	Designated period. Before it ends, the applicant may request an extension, likewise two months and three months respectively. The period stated in TIPO’s notice governs.	Patent Act, Arts. 46 and 142; TIPO design patent FAQ on office actions
Respond to, or amend after, TIPO’s notice in the formality examination of a utility model application	The period stated in TIPO’s notice	As set out in TIPO’s notice	Designated period. An extension may be requested, with reasons stated, before the designated period expires.	Patent Act, Arts. 109 and 120; Enforcement Rules of the Patent Act, Art. 6
File a divisional application	Invention: before a reexamination decision on the original application is rendered, or within three months after the approval decision (at first instance or on reexamination) is served. Utility model: before a decision is made on the original application, or within three months after the approval decision is served.	For the three months: service of the approval decision	The three-month period for filing a divisional application after allowance is a statutory period and cannot be extended.	Patent Act, Arts. 34 and 107; TIPO Patent Q&A (in Chinese)
Convert an application to another type of patent	Until the written decision allowing the original application is served. After a rejection: two months where the original application is an invention or design application; 30 days where it is a utility model application.	Service of the decision rejecting the original application	These are statutory periods. After a first-instance rejection of an invention or design application, the applicant must choose between requesting reexamination and requesting conversion; after a rejection of a utility model application, between an administrative appeal and conversion.	Patent Act, Arts. 108, 131 and 132; TIPO patent FAQ on conversion
Request reexamination after a decision of rejection on an invention application	Two months, with a statement of reasons	Service of the decision	Statutory period. If only the request is filed within the two months, TIPO will notify the applicant to supplement the statement of reasons within four months; an extension of two months is in principle granted if requested, with reasons, before that period expires. If the statement is still not filed, the request is not accepted. Both supplementation periods are set by TIPO rather than by statute, so the periods stated in TIPO’s notice govern.	Patent Act, Art. 48; TIPO Patent Q&A (in Chinese)
File an administrative appeal against a reexamination decision rejecting a patent application	30 days	The day after the decision is served	A period fixed by the Administrative Appeal Act, not one designated by TIPO	Administrative Appeal Act, Art. 14
Bring an administrative action if the administrative appeal is unsuccessful, then appeal to the Supreme Administrative Court	Two months for the administrative action before the Intellectual Property and Commercial Court; 20 days for the appeal	Service of the appeal decision; service of the court’s judgment	The two months and the 20 days are both peremptory (non-extendable) periods. Unless otherwise provided by law, a judgment of the Intellectual Property and Commercial Court in such an action may be appealed to the Supreme Administrative Court.	Administrative Litigation Act, Arts. 106 and 241; Intellectual Property and Commercial Court Organization Act, Art. 3; Intellectual Property Case Adjudication Act, Art. 69
Pay the patent certificate fee and the first-year annuity after approval (invention, utility model, design)	Three months. The grant is published only after payment; if the fees are not paid within that period, it is not published.	Service of the approval decision	Statutory period. An applicant who unintentionally misses it may still have the grant published by paying the patent certificate fee and an increased first-year annuity within six months after that deadline expires.	Patent Act, Arts. 52, 120 and 142
Pay the annuity for the second and each later year of an invention patent	Before that year begins. TIPO’s Q&A gives an example: where the grant is published on June 1, the second year of the patent right begins on June 1 of the following year, so the second-year annuity must be paid on or before May 31 of that year.	Annuities are counted from the publication date of the grant	Late payment: within six months after the due date, with a surcharge that is calculated by the month of delay and capped by statute. If the annuity is still unpaid when that period ends, the patent right is extinguished, with effect from the expiry of the original payment deadline. Where the failure to pay within the late-payment period was unintentional, the patentee may apply for reinstatement within one year after that period expires, on payment of an increased annuity.	Patent Act, Arts. 70, 93 and 94; TIPO Patent Q&A (in Chinese)
Patent term	Invention: 20 years. Utility model: 10 years. Design: 15 years; a derivative design patent expires at the same time as its original design patent.	The filing date, which is itself counted. An invention patent right begins on the publication date of the grant.	Patent term extension is available only for invention patents for pharmaceuticals (not veterinary drugs), agrichemicals, or their manufacturing processes. The request must be filed within three months after the first regulatory approval is obtained; none may be filed within the six months before the original patent term expires.	Patent Act, Arts. 20, 52, 53, 114 and 135
Respond to an invalidation action as patentee (invention, utility model, design)	One month. If the patentee neither responds within that month nor obtains an extension, TIPO proceeds with the examination without a response.	Service of the copy of the invalidation request on the patentee	Statutory period for which the Patent Act itself provides an extension. The period may be extended, with TIPO’s approval, if the patentee requests an extension, stating the reasons, before the period expires. The Patent Act does not fix the length of the extension: TIPO’s published Q&A states that the response may then be filed within two months from the day after the notice is received, and TIPO has said that it currently tends to give the patentee a one-month extension. The period TIPO actually grants governs.	Patent Act, Art. 74; TIPO Patent Q&A (in Chinese)
Add reasons or evidence to an invalidation action as requester (invention, utility model, design)	Three months for additions on the requester’s own initiative	The filing of the action	Statutory period. Reasons or evidence submitted later are not examined. After the three months, further reasons or evidence can be filed only in reply to a notification from TIPO; where TIPO issues the notification to clarify specific points, material that goes beyond those points is not examined.	Patent Act, Arts. 73 and 74; TIPO Patent Examination Guidelines, Part V, Chapter 1 (in Chinese)

Notes on the patent table

• Late translation and priority. If the Chinese translation of a foreign-language filing is not submitted within the specified period, the application will be dismissed. If the translation is submitted before the dismissal decision is served, the application is accepted, but the filing date becomes the date on which the translation was submitted and the foreign-language documents are deemed not to have been filed (Patent Act, Arts. 25, 106 and 125). If the Taiwan filing date is moved to a later date in this way, and that later date falls outside the priority period (12 months, or six months for a design application), the priority claim will not be accepted. For a PCT-family invention, see Is Taiwan in the PCT?
• Office actions. To extend the response period, file a reasoned request before the designated period expires. If no response is filed within the designated period, TIPO renders a decision of rejection (Patent Act, Art. 46(2)). For a utility model application, if the applicant neither responds nor amends within the period stated in TIPO’s notice, a decision of rejection is rendered. Where an application has co-applicants, the response period is the one stated in TIPO’s notice. Once TIPO has issued an office action, the applicant may amend only within the period designated in that notification (Patent Act, Art. 43).
• After a rejection. Reexamination applies to invention and design patent applications. A utility model application undergoes formality examination only; a decision not to grant a utility model patent is challenged by administrative appeal, with no reexamination stage. For an invention application, once a rejection at first instance has been served, a divisional application can be filed only after reexamination has been requested, so that the original application is pending in reexamination.
• Annuities. The first-year annuity is paid together with the patent certificate fee after approval; the annuity for the second and each later year must be paid before that year begins. It follows that no annuity falls due while an application is pending; the first-year annuity becomes payable only after the application has been approved. TIPO has no legal duty to notify patentees that an annuity is due. Any reminder it sends is a courtesy, and the patentee remains responsible for paying on time. According to TIPO, as a courtesy it sends an annuity payment notice two and a half months before the annuity is due and, if the annuity is still unpaid after the due date, a late-payment notice two to three months before the six-month late-payment period ends. As a rule the notices go to the patentee and its agent; for a foreign patentee, only to the agent.

Trademark deadlines

Where a period depends on where the applicant or registrant is based, the test in the trademark rules is whether it has a domicile or business establishment in Taiwan. In the fourth column, “statutory period” means a period that cannot be extended at the applicant’s request.

Step	Time limit	Counted from	Can it be extended?	Basis
File in Taiwan with a priority claim (same trademark; some or all of the same goods or services)	Six months	The day following the first filing date	Statutory period	Trademark Act, Art. 20; Enforcement Rules of the Trademark Act, Art. 20
Submit the certified copy of the first application	Three months	The day following the Taiwan filing date	Statutory period; it cannot be extended. If the certified copy is not submitted within the three months, priority is deemed not to have been claimed.	Trademark Act, Art. 20
Supplement an application after TIPO’s notice, for example by filing a missing power of attorney	Under TIPO’s guidelines, as a rule two months for applicants with no domicile or business establishment in Taiwan and one month for those with one	As set out in TIPO’s notice	Designated period. An extension may be requested, with reasons, before the period expires, and TIPO decides whether to grant it. The period stated in TIPO’s notice governs.	TIPO Procedural Examination Guidelines for Trademark Registration Applications (in Chinese); Enforcement Rules of the Trademark Act, Art. 8
Submit observations on TIPO’s written notice of the grounds for refusal	One month for an applicant with a domicile or business establishment in Taiwan; two months for an applicant without one	As set out in TIPO’s notice	On a request stating the reasons, the period may be extended by one month and two months respectively. If the applicant requests a further extension, TIPO may grant additional time at its discretion in light of the matters to be remedied, the reasons given, and the evidence; a request without good reason is not accepted.	Trademark Act, Art. 31; Enforcement Rules of the Trademark Act, Art. 34
Pay the registration fee after approval	Two months. Only after payment is the registration published and the registration certificate issued; if the fee is not paid within that period, the mark is not published for registration.	The day following service of the approval decision	Statutory period. An applicant who unintentionally fails to pay within the two months may still pay within six months from the day following the end of that period, together with a statutory surcharge, unless this would affect a trademark application filed, or trademark rights obtained, by a third party during that time. Restoration to the status quo ante under Article 8 of the Act is not available for a missed six-month period.	Trademark Act, Arts. 8 and 32
File an opposition against a registration (any person)	Three months	The day following the date on which the registration is published	Statutory period	Trademark Act, Art. 48
Respond as registrant, or comment as the party that filed the case, in opposition, invalidation, or revocation proceedings	Under TIPO’s examination guidelines for trademark dispute cases: registrant’s first response, one month for a registrant with a domicile or business establishment in Taiwan and two months for a registrant without one. Any later notice to respond: one month, whether the registrant is in Taiwan or abroad. Comments on the registrant’s response: as a rule, one month.	The first period to respond runs from the day after the notice is served	Designated periods. The period to respond or to comment may be extended by one month on a request, filed before the period expires, that states the reasons and the length of extension sought. A second request is, as a rule, not accepted; where the reasons are found to be genuinely justified, one further month may be granted. The period stated in TIPO’s notice governs.	Trademark Act, Arts. 49, 62 and 65; TIPO Procedural Examination Guidelines for Trademark Dispute Cases (in Chinese); Enforcement Rules of the Trademark Act, Art. 8
Renew the registration	A renewal application must be filed, and the renewal fee paid, within the six months before the term expires. It may still be filed within six months after the term expires, with a statutory surcharge.	Trademark rights begin on the date the registration is published and last 10 years. The renewed term runs from the day following the expiry of the previous term.	TIPO does not accept a renewal application filed earlier than six months before expiry or later than six months after it; the only exception TIPO notes for a late filing is restoration where the delay was caused by a natural disaster or another cause not attributable to the applicant.	Trademark Act, Arts. 8, 33 and 34; TIPO notes on renewal of registration (in Chinese)
Challenge a decision refusing a trademark application: administrative appeal, then administrative action, then appeal to the Supreme Administrative Court	30 days for the administrative appeal; two months for the administrative action; 20 days for the appeal to the Supreme Administrative Court	The day after the decision is served; service of the appeal decision; service of the judgment of the Intellectual Property and Commercial Court	As in the patent table. The 30 days are fixed by the Administrative Appeal Act, not designated by TIPO; the two months and the 20 days are peremptory (non-extendable) periods.	Administrative Appeal Act, Art. 14; Administrative Litigation Act, Arts. 106 and 241

Notes on the trademark table

• Renewal. If a registration is not renewed under Article 34, the trademark rights are extinguished from the day following the expiry of the term (Trademark Act, Art. 47).
• Use. TIPO must revoke a registration, on its own initiative or on application, where the mark has not been put to use, or its use has been suspended, for a continuous period of three years or more without proper reasons, unless a licensee has used it. The registration is not revoked if the mark is already in use when the revocation application is filed, except where that use began within the three months before the filing because the registrant learned that an application would be filed (Trademark Act, Art. 63). In a non-use revocation case, once the notice to respond has been served, the registrant must prove use of the mark; if no response is filed within the period set, TIPO may revoke the registration directly (Trademark Act, Art. 65(2)).

How periods are counted

The rules below are for periods under the Patent Act and the Trademark Act. This section does not cover how the administrative appeal and court periods in the two tables are counted; those periods are set by the Administrative Appeal Act and the Administrative Litigation Act.

• The first day is not counted. In calculating a period under the Patent Act, the first day is not counted. The exception is the term of a patent right, which is counted from the filing date itself (Patent Act, Art. 20). In calculating a period under the Trademark Act, the first day is likewise not counted. The Act lists three exceptions (Articles 33(1), 75(4) and 103); for example, the term of a trademark right is counted from the date of publication of registration itself (Trademark Act, Art. 16). Where a row in either table gives “the day following” or “the day after” an event as its starting point (in the patent table, the 12-month priority period and the extended period to respond to an invalidation action; in the trademark table, the priority, certified copy, registration fee, opposition, and dispute-response rows), this rule is already reflected: the day of the event is the day that is not counted, and the period runs from the next day.
• Periods in months or years. A period fixed in months or years that does not begin on the first day of a month or year ends on the day before the day, in the final month or year, that corresponds to the day on which the period began to run. If the final month has no such day, the period ends on the last day of that month (Administrative Procedure Act, Art. 48). Apart from the special rules in the Patent Act and the Trademark Act, periods are calculated under the Administrative Procedure Act.
• Holidays. In patent and trademark matters alike, if the last day of a period falls on a Saturday, Sunday, national holiday or other day off, the period ends on the next working day. A Saturday that the government has designated as a make-up working day does not extend the period (TIPO Patent Examination Guidelines, Part I, Chapter 16; TIPO Procedural Examination Guidelines for Trademark Registration Applications).
• Which date counts. Whether a period has been met is determined by the date the document reaches TIPO or, if it is sent by mail, by the postmark date at the place of mailing. No time is added for mailing (Enforcement Rules of the Patent Act, Art. 5; Trademark Act, Art. 9).

Related pages

Our page on Taiwan and the PCT covers the priority period for a PCT-family invention. The Taiwan patent filing checklist lists what a filing needs and what can follow later. Our page on how long a Taiwan patent or trademark takes gives TIPO’s reported pendency figures. The procedures these periods belong to are described on the patent and trademark practice pages.

TIPO publishes a flowchart of invention patent examination and administrative remedies; it is listed in the sources below. For how we take instructions and report, see For Foreign Associates.