I. Articles 34 and Article 13 (Table) of Trademark Regulation revisions were promulgated and implemented by the TIPO on September 3, 2007

    In order to comply with the 9th Nice Classification, TIPO drafted revisions to Article 13's Table of Classification of Goods and Services of the Trademark Regulations. These revisions were approved by the Executive Yuan on August 16, 2007, and promulgated and implemented by TIPO on September 3, 2007. The revisions are as follows:

Class 21: The description “…., not of precious mental and/or not of precious metal plating)” was deleted, since the “utensils and containers for household or kitchen use” in class 21 should include those are made of precious mental or of precious metal plating.

Class 29: To add “frozen fruits and vegetables” in this class.

Class 42: “Legal services” was moved to class 45.

    In our Newsletter in July, we have preliminarily noticed of the revision of Article 34 of Trademark Regulation. Please be advised that the said revision has been promulgated and implemented by the TIPO on September 3, 2007 to comply with the practices at present. Therefore, the opposer's identification certificate is no longer required and will be requested only when the Registrar Office deems necessary.

Ⅱ. The examination principle for those trademark logo with “Organic”

    The wording “organic” as a part of a trademark is allowed only under the condition that the designated goods are certified as “organic” by the Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan, Taiwan, R.O.C., no matter the goods are produced in Taiwan or imported from other countries. Or, “organic” should be deleted from the trademark. The request of disclaiming the part of “organic” from the trademark is not allowed. When the designated goods are indicated with the wording “organic”, the foregoing rules are also applied.

Ⅲ. The examination principle for a mark which has been registered as a certification mark of place of origin

    Once a geographical name has been allowed to register as a certification mark of place of origin, such name cannot be filed as a part of any other mark designating under similar or the same goods or services any more because this kind of trademark application is deemed to violate Article 23 I (11) of Trademark Act, i.e. it is likely to mislead the public with respect to the place of origin of the designated goods or services. The only way to overcome the official rejection based on Article 23 I (11) of Trademark Act under this situation is to delete such name from the mark.

I. Status of Patent Attorney Act

    The Patent Attorney Act passed the third reading at the Legislative Yuan on June 14, 2007. According to the Patent Attorney Act, patent attorneys will be qualified for practice only if they pass the national examination and complete a pre-employment training. This Act was announced on July 11, 2007 and will be implemented on January 11, 2008. As to the relevant enforcement regulations, it has not been published yet. It is expected that the Patent Attorney examination will be held in August 2008. The Patent Attorney examination program and training program are under discussion and will be announced later.

I. The official fees for Administrative suit

    In the past, there was no official fee for each stage of administrative suit but only very few amount of miscellaneous disbursements (NTD250~NTD700/ USD8~USD23) were charged. In order to prevent from too many administrative suits raised unnecessarily, the official fees for administrative suit should be charged as of August 15, 2007 according to the revised Administrative Litigation Act. The official fee is NTD4000 (USD131) for raising an administrative suit before the High Administrative Court and NTD6000 (USD197) for the Appeal before the Supreme Administrative Court.