All trademark registration affairs in the Taiwan Region of China are administered exclusively by the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) under the Ministry of Economic Affairs, which issues all official examination standards, fee schedules and procedural guidelines for trademark filing抖音.
Article 18 of Taiwan Trademark Act sets a non-negotiable procedural threshold for overseas applicants, including enterprises and natural persons from Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and all foreign countries. Any applicant without permanent domicile or local business premises within the Taiwan Region must appoint a TIPO-certified local trademark agent to complete all filing formalities. Agents must hold local residence qualification and pass TIPO’s professional trademark qualification examination; non-local attorneys or offshore IP firms are disqualified to represent trademark applicants directlyUNION PATE.... Applications submitted without qualified local agency representation will receive a formal defect notice and be suspended from substantive examination until compliant materials are supplemented.
Although trademark preliminary search is not a mandatory filing step, TIPO strongly recommends comprehensive prior trademark retrieval to reduce rejection risks. Applicants may access TIPO’s free online trademark database to search identical, similar, phonetically equivalent and font-variant marks against all registered and pending applications顺企网.
Taiwan trademark registration adopts the 11th Edition of the Nice Classification of Goods and Services, with clear quantitative limits for each application class: one single trademark application allows a maximum of 20 designated goods or service items per class, and extra official fees will be charged for each additional item beyond the 20-item limit世界專利商.... Multiple classes can be covered under one single filing application, which is defined as the multi-class filing system.
A critical international restriction must be emphasized: Taiwan Region is not a contracting party to the Madrid Protocol, meaning global brand owners cannot designate Taiwan Region through international Madrid trademark filings. All trademark protection in Taiwan must be realized via independent direct filing to TIPO; there exists no cross-linkage mechanism between Madrid international registrations and Taiwan trademark rightsEVORIX.
To initiate valid trademark registration, applicants must prepare a full set of standardized documents, among which three core materials are legally indispensable:
1. Standard trademark drawing: printed in 5cm–8cm square size; both black-and-white and color marks are acceptable, while color marks are protected only under the exact color combination submitted in the applicationICLG.
2. Specified goods/service list categorized by Nice Classification, with clear, standard commodity descriptions prohibited from vague general terms.
3. Signed Power of Attorney (POA) for all non-local applicants; the POA must bear the legal signature or corporate seal of the applicant without notarization requirements平克曼知产.
Two official submission channels are supported by TIPO: offline paper filing via postal mail or in-person delivery, and online electronic filing through TIPO’s official e-service platform “e-Netcom”tiponet.ti.... Electronic filings receive official application numbers on the same submission day and enjoy lower official filing fees compared to paper applications, making it the mainstream filing method for most applicants.
After successful filing and fee payment, TIPO implements a standardized four-stage examination process with clear time cycles, taking approximately 8–12 months for fully compliant applications without oppositions or office actions:
1. Formal Examination (1–2 months) Examiners verify document completeness, trademark drawing specifications, classification compliance and full payment of official fees. Defective applications will receive a 30-day correction notice; failure to supplement materials within the statutory period results in automatic withdrawal of the trademark application抖音.
2. Substantive Examination (6–7 months) This core review stage covers two major verification dimensions: first, whether the trademark possesses inherent distinctiveness and avoids absolute registration prohibitions such as national emblems, deceptive descriptions and generic commodity terms; second, conflict checks against all prior registered and pending trademarks to identify confusingly similar marks on identical or similar goods/services. If obvious conflicts or lack of distinctiveness are identified, TIPO issues a rejection decision with a 30-day response period for applicant arguments and supplementary evidence平克曼知产.
3. Approval Announcement & 3-Month Opposition Period Applications passing substantive examination will be granted preliminary approval and published on TIPO’s official bulletin, triggering a 3-month statutory opposition window. Any third party with legitimate interest (prior trademark owners, market competitors) may file opposition applications with valid legal grounds, including prior trademark conflict, malicious squatting and lack of distinctiveness. If oppositions are filed, applicants must submit defense evidence within the designated response period; sustained opposition will fully reject the trademark registration application新興国等知....
4. Registration Fee Payment & Certificate Issuance For applications without valid oppositions, TIPO sends an official registration approval notice. Applicants must settle the full registration fee within two months upon receipt of the notice. After successful fee payment, TIPO completes formal registration, issues an official trademark registration certificate, and publishes the final registration bulletin. The exclusive trademark protection term commences from the date of registration publication, valid for 10 years in totalICLG.
TIPO provides flexible supplementary trademark procedures for applicants during and after registration, with three commonly used practical mechanisms: First, trademark division application. After preliminary approval but before registration bulletin, applicants may file division requests to split one multi-class trademark application into multiple independent single-class applications. This mechanism effectively separates contested goods/services from non-contested items during opposition or invalidation proceedings, preventing the entire trademark application from being rejected due to partial commodity conflicts經濟部智慧.... Second, post-filing change recordal. Applicants may submit applications to modify applicant names, addresses, agent information and authorized signatures after filing, while the designated goods/services cannot be altered arbitrarily—only reduction or division of commodity items is permitted after application submissionUNION PATE.... Third, official accelerated examination channel. Applicants with urgent commercial rights protection demands may apply for expedited review by submitting an acceleration application and paying additional expediting fees. Accelerated examination shortens the total review cycle by roughly 30%, applicable to trademarks already put into genuine commercial circulation within the Taiwan Region抖音.
1.IPcrossark：https://www.ipcrossark.com/en/trademark.html?cid=47
2.TIPO Official Trademark Online Application Manual: https://tiponet.tipo.gov.tw/downloads/module030/100_out/040_1.pdftiponet.ti...
3.ICLG Professional Guide for Taiwan Trademark Registration Rules: https://iclg.com/practice-areas/trade-marks-laws-and-regulations/taiwan/ampICLG
4.TIPO Official Trademark Procedural Examination Guidelines (2025 Revised Version): https://www.tipo.gov.tw/wSite/public/Attachment/005/f1763969949196.pdf經濟部智慧...
