The “two (2) months” period provided in the first part of Article 48 Paragraph 1 of the Patent Act is statutory time period. The Patent Act, amended and promulgated on December 21, 2011, discussed the rules of reinstatement in point 7 of the General Information of the amendment. Point 7 noted that in order to encourage innovation and protect R&D results, the amendment allows a process for restoration of rights when there has been an unintentional failure to make priority claim at the time of filing, and when the annuities was deemed not have been paid within the specified time period and resulting in the extinguishment of patent rights. (Article 29, Article 52 and Article 70 of the amendment.) Therefore, the rules of reinstatement in Patent Act were added into Article 29, Article 52 and Article 70 of the Patent Act, and were effective on December 21, 2011. Aforementioned rules should be covered under the term “unless otherwise provided in this Act” in the Article 17 paragraph 1. It should be noted, however, the two-month statutory period of reexamination in Article 48 of the Patent Act did not stipulate the rules of reinstatement in the amendment in 2011, which explicitly excludes the application of reinstatement. Consequently, when the Plaintiff delayed the statutory time period for a request of reexamination, he/she should file an application for restoring her/his original status according to Article 48 paragraph 2 and paragraph 3, instead of requesting the application of reinstatement.

Reexamination, Delay of the statutory time period, the Right to reinstatement