The pandemic has brought about many changes on a global scale. Many interactions have become connected to the virtual space, and business transactions are no exception. This trend has accentuated the importance of globalized intellectual property (IP) rights protection. AIPLUX is the first smart IP service platform in Taiwan that makes applying for IP rights across linguistic and national borders easier than ever. Compared to traditional consultation fees, the new solution vastly reduces costs so that even individual creators can protect their IPs internationally. Going forward, the company aims to become the preferred tool for IP applications not just in Taiwan, but in the broader Chinese-speaking market.
Legal services for intellectual properties have a high barrier to entry even inside a single country, but intellectual property protection is even less accessible in cross-border scenarios due to linguistic, legal, and procedural complications. Even established enterprises find it difficult to apply for IP protection to secure their rights in a foreign market. In Taiwan, complicated legal and administrative procedures have made applying for trademark or patent protection a convoluted mess that is usually left for IP or legal firms to deal with.
The challenge is even greater for Taiwanese enterprises looking to apply for IP protection in foreign markets due to Taiwan's exclusion from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). This results in applications needing to be submitted through the U.S. or China, greatly increasing costs and time. For those who are willing to undertake this mammoth task, they are still confronted with the fact that Taiwanese IP firms usually do not offer such international services, leaving enterprises to fend for themselves.
All of these difficulties have greatly obstructed the ability of Taiwanese enterprises to expand globally. Compared with neighboring Asian nations (Hong Kong, Korea, or Singapore i.e., other members of the Four Asian Tigers), Taiwanese enterprises have the lowest rates of foreign IP applications.
LOFA: Bringing Down Barriers to the Democratization of IP Applications
To overcome these IP pain points faced by individuals and enterprises, AIPLUX introduced the AI-powered LOFA international trademark application platform. AIPLUX founder Alfred Wu said that the LOFA platform can help all types of entities, small- to medium-sized enterprises, startups, personal brand studios, young innovators, and even night market stalls. They simply need to go to the platform, select the country in which they would like to register the trademark, specify the category and quantity, and the system will automatically provide an estimate of the total cost and guide them to complete the application process on the platform. Applying for trademarks through traditional IP firms can take up to one week for documents and forms to be filled out and sent, but the LOFA multinational trademark application process takes only 5 minutes to complete.
Furthermore, AIPLUX has released auxiliary platforms for LOFA that are now entering the test stage. One is a matchmaker platform that can help connect inventors and enterprises with professional patent drafters for submission of international patent applications. Another is an intellectual property management platform that lets users monitor all of their patents, trademarks, and copyrights using one single unified interface with low costs and high efficiency.
Connecting Taiwan to the Rest of the World
AIPLUX maintains a dual-track approach by making sure its expansion to the international market takes place alongside its efforts to increase IP protection in Taiwan. Alfred said that because legal and accounting resources in Taiwan are heavily centered in north Taiwan, enterprises in the central or southern regions may have a hard time accessing them. While the online platform can circumvent geographical limitations and support applicants to apply remotely, certain functions and services still need to be provided in person. To fulfill these unmet needs, AIPLUX has applied for a space at TTA South and established an office near Kaohsiung City's Central Park. In the future, the company will organize events and activities to connect with southern enterprises, helping them utilize IP protection to increase their competitiveness.
For the international market, the company plans to provide, among other things, multi-language service on the LOFA platform to make it more easily accessible for international users. Their service is especially well-suited for enterprises looking to conduct business in Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, China, Hong Kong, and Macau, serving as a single platform that manages international trademarks at low costs and reduced complexity. According to WIPO estimates, these countries account for 60% of the global trademark application market. This new service perfectly fills the void in the market to help strengthen IP protection globally.
AIPLUX has acquired close to NT$20 million through Headline Asia in its seed round funding and plans to focus on Japan and the U.S. as its first foreign markets. In November 2021, AIPLUX was awarded the HLF No.1 Award in France. Alfred said that the French and Spanish markets will be major focuses as well for the company in the future and that they seek to globalize their services beyond the Chinese-speaking market as they continue to promote upgrades to the IP ecosystem.
(Editor's note: The original article was published in TTA Magazine Issue 9. Read more startup stories in TTA Magazines.)
AIPLUX team
Photo: AIPLUX
