[Finance] Accelerating Startup Patent Layout: Intellectual Property Office Launches 3 Major Measures to Assist

The Ministry of Economic Affairs' Intellectual Property Office announced on the 16th the expansion of the patent acceleration review mechanism for startups, launching three major measures to help startups shorten the time to obtain patents. Among them, the "Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH)" has established cooperation mechanisms with 8 countries including the United States, Japan, and South Korea, which helps startups accelerate their integration into the international market and enhance their technological protection and fundraising competitiveness. #Reported by RTI correspondent Cai Ping-min# The Intellectual Property Office announced on the 16th the launch of three supporting measures to help startups accelerate patent protection, strengthen their technological moats, and enhance their fundraising capabilities. Director of the Intellectual Property Office, Liao Cheng-wei, stated that patent layout is crucial for startup competitiveness, and patents are also an important basis for investors to evaluate technological strength and market potential, helping to increase enterprise valuation, financing negotiation power, and the ability to secure subsidies. These measures can prevent innovation results from being imitated due to excessively long review periods. Firstly, the "Proactive Patent Review Program for Startup Industries" is characterized by proactive inquiries from reviewers and the provision of revision suggestions, accelerating the review process. Last year, the average review period was only 65.8 days, a significant reduction compared to the 13.8 months for the initial examination of general inventions, with an approval rate as high as 93%. The Intellectual Property Office pointed out that this program has shown concrete results, having assisted 97 startup companies, mainly in the hardware and healthcare sectors. Currently, 39 companies have successfully secured investments, with a cumulative fundraising amount of US$298 million (approximately NT$9 billion), primarily in seed and Series A funding rounds. Regarding the "Accelerated Examination Program for Invention Patents (AEP)," Liao Cheng-wei explained that review opinions can be obtained in about 2 months on average, helping startups seize international market and ESG opportunities. Finally, concerning the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) and the Taiwan Supporting Utilization of Patent Prosecution Highway (TW-SUPA), Liao Cheng-wei pointed out that Taiwan has cooperated with 8 countries, including the United States, Japan, South Korea, and Israel, allowing startups to accelerate their overseas patent examination procedures and lay out international markets after obtaining patents. In the future, they hope to further establish cooperative relationships with New Southbound countries and European countries to increase the number of mutually beneficial partner countries. He said: "(Original sound) Another is the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH). The main purpose of the Patent Prosecution Highway is that when you are in Taiwan, we hope to let it go global, which is a concept of an international competition. As mentioned, we signed cooperation agreements with France and Israel last year. Both France and Israel are quite advanced in technology. Relatively speaking, I believe that for our industries to expand into these countries, they can first file patent applications in Taiwan, and then proceed to these 8 countries." In addition, for the "Startup Industry Accelerated Review Plan," the Intellectual Property Office focuses on key industries such as AI, net-zero, semiconductors, and elder care technology, providing intelligence resources such as patent trend reports and case compilations. Liao Cheng-wei stated that commissioning external parties to produce such reports can cost hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars. These materials help companies grasp market trends and patent layout directions, discover potential business opportunities, and reduce upfront research costs.