Recently, the State Intellectual Property Office ("SIPO") has released the Announcement on Repealing the Announcement No.51 and Revising the Circular on Accepting International Applications Filed by Taiwan Compatriots (the "Announcement"), which will come into force as of the date of promulgation.
The Announcement contains the following provisions. The first is repealing the Provisions on Several Issues concerning the Patent Applications from Hong Kong and Macau. The second is revising the Circular on Accepting International Applications Filed by Taiwan Compatriots (the "Circular") by modifying the "China Patent Office" in from Article 1 to Article 6 into the "State Intellectual Property Office", removing the term "foreign-related" from the phrase "foreign-related agencies", and replacing the "patent agencies designated by the China Patent Office" in Article 2 with "legally established patent agencies". The revised Circular makes it clear that where Taiwan compatriots file international applications to the SIPO, they shall entrust legally established patent agencies to go through procedures in which the SIPO is the international search unit or international preliminary examination unit, or the designated office or elected office, and to deal with other matters relating to international applications.