The Court of Intellectual Property would Adopt 3-in-1 System.

　The Judicial Yuan will give an impetus to set up “Professional Court of Intellectual Property.” It originally intend to adopt civil and administrative 2-in-1 system, however, after the Judicial Yuan and the Ministry of Justice dispatching employees to Tailand for investigation, the Ministry of Justice strongly suggest adopting civil, criminal, and administrative 3-in-1 system to concentrate rights and to try cases related to intellectual property rights exclusively.

 

The Judicial Yuan expressed that despite it has assessed 2-in-1 system preliminarily, it never exclude the possibility of 3-in-1 system.

 

Prosecutor Yeh, who went to Tailand for investigation, indicated that the domestic judicial environment is different from the judicial environment in U.S.A and German. Most domestic cases of intellectual property are mainly under criminal lawsuit and supplementary to civil lawsuit. If the court of intellectual property adopts 2-in-1 system, it would produce embarrassed situation that professional court’s judgment shall follow general court’s judgment. In this regard, the court of intellectual property will not function as expectation and will destroy the Judicial Yuan’s goodwill as well.

 

Dictionary of News: Difference between 2-in-1 system and 3-in-1 system. The 2-in-1 system means trial of intellectual property rights infringement case of civil and administrative lawsuit, most countries all over the world adopt this system currently.

 

On the other hand, the 3-in-1 system adds trial of criminal case besides civil and administrative trial. Currently, only Turkey and Tailand adopt this system. US and European countries’ intellectual property rights cases are mainly under civil lawsuit, but since judicial environment of our country is unique, general intellectual property rights infringement cases are mainly under criminal lawsuit with civil lawsuit supplementary to criminal lawsuit. Although criminal judgment shall not influence civil judgment, whether the act of infringing intellectual property rights is constituted in criminal judgment is an important reference to civil judgment. Hence, the Judicial Yuan suggests it is more appropriate to adopt 3-in-1 system in our country. (2005.4)

CYJ/CHA