BEIJING -- A total of 189 Taiwan residents took this year's patent agent qualification exam on the mainland, a government spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Taiwan residents were permitted to participate in the exam for the first time this year, taking the exam on Nov. 5 and 6 in Fuzhou, the capital of east China's Fujian province, Fan Liqing, spokeswoman for the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, said at a press conference.

In addition, Fan said 480 Taiwan residents signed up for the mainland's annual judicial exam, a prerequisite to enter the legal profession on the mainland, with 360 of them taking the exam in September.

Their scores will be published soon, she said.

Since the mainland's judicial exam was opened to the Taiwanese in 2008, a total of 140 Taiwanese have passed the exam, and more than 20 of them have been admitted to the bar on the mainland, Fan said.