HEARING PROGRAM FOR PATENT INVALIDATION CASE (II)

Wei-Ting Chou, Patent Director, Patent Group I

¡½ Master of Agricultural Engineering, National Taiwan University

¡½ Bachelor of Medical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University

9. Progress of the hearing procedures

9.1 The hearing shall be held at the Office or place designated thereby at the announced specified date.

9.2 Except for the Examiners, the parties or the agents thereof, and the necessary witnesses and appraiser, only the interested parties and the general public submitting a petition in advance and allowed to respectively attend and audit may participate.

The proper party in the preceding paragraph, if being a legal person, may appoint its employee to be present at the hearing; the agent may further appoint a person having a professional knowledge in respect of the invalidation case to be present at the hearing.

9.3 In principle, the hearing is made public.  However, where any party has requested not to make public before the hearing, or submitted, during the hearing procedures, statements that if relevant documents and evidence contents are made public, its interests will likely be serious damage, the presider may decide not to make a part or all of the hearing public.

9.4 Before starting the hearing, the identification of a person who will be present at or attend the hearing and whether this person is qualified to be present or attend shall be checked first.  The person who will be present at or attend the hearing shall actively show the identification thereof to be checked; where the identification cannot be shown and cannot be supplemented in time, the presider may not allow the person to be present or attend and should record this situation in the hearing minutes.

9.5 The hearing should be conducted by three or more Examiners under a collegiate format.  When holding the hearing, all Examiners shall be present.

9.6 After the presider announces that the hearing is beginning, the qualification of the person who is present or attending and whether there is a statutory reason to disqualify this person shall be checked first.  If there is no opposition, the subsequent procedure is to explain the essentials of the hearing, and announce the remarking and interrogating orders, and other required particulars.

9.7 Where a party considers that the presider has made an illegal or inappropriate disposal during the hearing, the party may instantaneously raise an objection thereto.  The presider, shall revoke this disposal, if considering that the objection is reasonable, or dismiss the opposition, if considering that the objection is unreasonable.

9.8 The presider should briefly explain the details of the invalidation case, check the evidence submitted by the parties, and identify the issues.

9.9 Where a party provides subsequent documents according to the stipulations in Item 4, the subsequent documents shall be limited to supplements of the documents having been provided or written statements for the hearing, and be submitted in hard copy to the Office and the other party 10 days before the hearing.

9.10 The parties, during the interrogation with each other, should have consent from the presider first to raise a question.

9.11 During the hearing, if the invalidator intends to withdraw the invalidation case, the presider may suspend the hearing, and follow the stipulations for suspension of the hearing in Item 10 of this program.

9.12 Where the presider considers that the parties have fully interrogated each other, after a party has stated the final opinions, the presider shall announce that the hearing is closed; the presider, if considering that the parties have not fully interrogated each other, shall decide, before the end of the hearing, a new date and place for continuing the hearing.

9.13 During the hearing, a party may waive some of the claimed issues or reasons.  The waived issues or reasons shall be recorded in the hearing minutes and shall not be examined.

9.14 The parties may ask the presider to explain case issues or procedural issues, and the presider may make brief explanations therefor; however, the parties should not ask the presider to disclose the free evaluation on the substantive matters of the case.

9.15 The presider shall inform the parties that, according to the stipulations of Article 109 of the Administrative Procedure Law, if not willing to accept the administrative decision made based on the hearing, the subsequent administrative remedy procedure will be to institute an administrative litigation, dispensing with the appeal procedure.

10. Suspension of the hearing

10.1 Reasons for suspending the hearing:

If the invalidator intends to withdraw the invalidation case, or submit facts having a material impact on the result of finding the invalidation case, the presider may suspend the hearing upon petition or ex officio.

10.2 Where the presider makes a decision to suspend the hearing, the reasons therefor shall be recorded in the hearing minutes.

10.3 Where the invalidation decision is made as a result of suspending the hearing, the stipulations of Article 109 of the Administrative Procedure Law shall not apply.

11. Maintaining order during the hearing:

(1) During the hearing, the members who present, attend, or audit shall follow the commands of the presider.

(2) During the hearing, there shall be no smoking, eating or drinking, and any electronic device shall be turned into a mute state.

(3) No applause or uproar shall be made for the opinions remarked by any attendant.

(4) No interference shall be made nor any question shall be asked when anyone is remarking.

(5) When remarking, opinions shall be stated with respect to the matters related to the invalidation case, and no personal attack shall be imposed.

(6) During the hearing, the members who present, attend, or audit shall not record audio, record video or take any photograph.  However, this limitation does not apply where there is a consent thereto from the presider.

(7) During the hearing, there shall not be any other behavior which hinders the order or is inappropriate.

12. The hearing minutes

12.1 The hearing and preparatory proceedings shall be recorded by a recorder as hearing minutes on file.  In the hearing minutes, the following shall be recorded:

(1) the case;

(2) names of the attending parties, interested parties, witness and appraiser;

(3) date and place for the hearing;

(4) essentials of the opinions or questions, and relevant documents or evidence provided by the parties, interested parties, witness and appraiser;

(5) during the hearing, matters to which parties raise objections, and how the presider deals with the objection;

(6) items interrogated and the gist of the interrogation response;

12.2 Audio and/or video recordings may be used to assist in taking hearing minutes.

12.3 The hearing minutes should be completed on the spot, and shall be signed or sealed by the Examiners, the parties, the interested parties, the witness, and the appraiser.  Anyone who has an objection to the records in the hearing minutes shall raise the objection instantaneously.  The presider, if considering that the objection is reasonable, shall make corrections or supplements to the hearing minutes.  Even if the objection is unreasonable, this objection shall be recorded therein.

12.4 If any one of the (proper) parties, the interested parties, the witness, and the appraiser refuses to sign or affix the hearing minutes with a respective seal, the reasons therefor shall be recorded in the hearing minutes.

13. Audience of the general public

13.1 Anyone who would like to petition to be in audience shall submit the petition to the Office ten days before the date for the hearing.

13.2 Those who petition to be in audience should be permitted according to the petition order, and the number of those petitioning shall be limited to the number of the audience seats.

14. The language(s) used during the hearing

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