Three-track Patent Trial System
Since November 2008, the IP Tribunal has provided three-track (super-accelerated, accelerated, and regular) trial service to process patent disputes more efficiently. For super-accelerated trials, an oral hearing is held within 1 month of the expiry of the answer submission period, and trial decisions are made within 2 months of the oral hearing. Parties involved receive a final decision within 4 months of the trial request. Processing times for both accelerated and regular trial cases are 6 and 9 months, respectively.
Accelerated trials occur in the following scenarios: invalidation trials or trials to determine the scope of a right in pending infringement litigations; invalidation trials or trials to determine the scope of a right in unfair competition and trade cases referred by the Trade Commission; cases for which both parties have submitted an agreement for accelerated trial; invalidation trials for non-entitled patents; and appeals of examiner refusals to grant super-accelerated examination for patent applications directly related to green technology.
Last updated 24 May 2016<
Trial Policy Division