IPO Showed the Current Status and Measures of IPR Protection in Taiwan on the Eve of “426 World IPR Day”.

　On the eve of “426 World IPR Day”, Wen-Hsiang Lu, Deputy Director of Intellectual Property Office (“IPO”) said that there has been an international trend towards IPR protection. If the rampancy of piracy cannot be contained, legal manufacturers’ rights will be seriously impacted, and that will not only disadvantage national economic development but also concern the US right holder groups. The US right holder group’s concern would pressure the US congress and administrative departments and thus hold back Taiwan’s economic and international relations enlargement.

 

  Lu held that for IPR protection in Taiwan, “IPR Protection Police Team” has been established to raid the factories manufacturing pirated disks and the sale of pirated disks in night market and shopping malls. “IPR Protection Police Team” has also completed its legalization process on November 1, 2004 so as to be empowered to lower piracy rate more effectively. Besides, the Joint Optical Disk Enforcement Taskforce of the Ministry of Economic Affairs takes charge of clamping down on the factories manufacturing pirated disks and conducts cycle and out-of-cycle inspection on nationwide disk factories for thousand times each year. In addition, the Ministry of Finance enacts “Operational Directions for the Enforcement Task Force against the Export of Pirated Optical Disks” to frame a mechanism and increase random inspection, thus greatly decreasing the export of counterfeits and pirated products. Also, the Ministry of Education includes the issue of IPR protection in campus evaluation to propagandize IP protection awareness to students.

 

  With the development of Internet technology, infringement via the Internet has become the new criminal conduct globally. In order to effectively prevent this form of infringement, the Ministry of Economic Affairs also enacts the “Plan for Enhancing Computer Software Protection” and formulated “Internet Infringement Prevention Scheme”, so as to cut piracy rate down to below 40%.

 

  In addition, a reward up to the maximum of NT$500,000 per case shall be granted for the cases reported and solved and for those of sale of counterfeits on the Internet and thus indicted by the prosecutor. Internet infringement on music, movies, and other digital products are replacing traditional form of piracy and counterfeiting. Meanwhile, sale of well-known brand products via Internet platform also takes a large slice of infringement. In order to effectively deter such new forms of Internet infringement, The “Directions of Reward for Anti-Counterfeiting Cases” of the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ adds that the rewards granted to the informants or enforcement officers who report or uncover counterfeit products sold on the Internet in the cases regarding online sale of counterfeits should amount to 20% of the total retail price of the uncovered counterfeits, computers, and servers. Such regulation is to encourage people to report Internet illegality and to bring into full play the public supervision.

 

  By cross-departmental coordination, the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) in the US recently announced a big plunge from 56% in 2002 to 42% in piracy rate of video game software in Taiwan, and a drop from 47% to 42% in music piracy, and also a decrease from 53% in 2001 to current 43% in commercial software piracy. Such evident slide of piracy rate in Taiwan tops the world.

 

  Moreover, as a result of Taiwan customs’ intensified border inspection measures, the amount of Taiwan’s products exported to US, involved in counterfeiting, and thus seized by the US customs, has slumped from USD26,500,000 in 2003 to USD60,000 in the first half of 2004 (US accounting year). This represents Taiwan’s great advance in IPR protection, which not only resumes the US-Taiwan TIFA meeting at the end of November of 2004, but also removes Taiwan from the 301 Priority Watch List to the Watch List after the U.S. Trade Representative’s (USTR) review on January 19, 2005. (2005.4)

CYJ/CCS