Intellectual Property Office in June Would Give the Ruling of Compulsory License for Patented CD-R after Deliberation.

Intellectual Property Office (IPO), Ministry of Finance, was likely to give the ruling of compulsory license against the case vs. royalties on Philips’ CD-R, while local disc manufacturers emphasized that such a ruling favored local disc manufacturers’ business benefits and accomplishment only to a limited extent even though Philips is requested to compulsorily grant its license because the validity of such a ruling simply covers the local market in Taiwan.

 

IPO has deliberated the case vs. royalties on Philips’ CD-R for a period of time, and is finally giving its ruling recently. A few months ago, International Trade Commission (ITC) rendered a judgment against the lawsuit among Gigastorage, Princo Corporation, and Philips Electronics, and such a judgment can serve as an example for IPO to give a ruling just in time. Proprietors here consider that such an example would facilitate IPO’s decision to settle the Philips case that has causes much turmoil in way of compulsory license.

 

Philips has always collected fixed amount of royalties on its CD-R; no matter what quantity is manufactured, fixed amount of royalties on per disc is collected. In the event that IPO decides to give a ruling of compulsory license, only a certain ratio of royalties shall be paid to Philips in accordance with laws and decrees in Taiwan (It is estimated that the total probably covers one tenth of the royalties at present.)

CYJ/CCS