Abolishment of criminal penalty for patent infringement from Patent Law to be effective as of March 31, 2003

The abolishment of criminal penalty for patent infringement defined in the Amendments to Patent Law promulgated on February 6, 2003, covering Article 83, Article 125, Article 126, Article 128 through Article 131, will be effective as of March 31, 2003.  After that, infringed parties can seek to resolve cases involving patent infringement only by remedial proceedings applicable in a civil action.

 

Article 83  An advertisement put by the patentee of the invention patent or by his licensee or compulsory licensee shall not exceed the scope of the patent right.  No one shall affix any words such as "patented" or other marks which are sufficient to mislead others into believing it as patented on the advertisement, publication, product or the package thereof for a non-patented product or a product not manufactured by use of a patented process.

Article 125  Any person who produces, without the prior consent of utility model patentee, the utility model patented product, so as to infringe the patent right thereto, shall be punished with imprisonment for up to two years or detention, and/or a fine of up to NT$150,000.

Article 126  Any person who produces, without the prior consent of new design patentee, the new design patented product, so as to infringe the patent right thereto, shall be punished with imprisonment for up to one year or detention, and/or a fine of up to NT$60,000.

Article 128  Any person who knowingly sells, displays for sale, or imports for sale any utility model patented product which is produced without the prior consent of the utility model patentee, shall be punished with imprisonment for up to six months or detention, and/or a fine of up to NT$30,000.

Article 129  Any person who knowingly sells, displays for sale, or imports for sale any new design patented product which is produced without the prior consent of the new design patentee, shall be punished with detention, and/or a fine of up to NT$15,000.

Article 130  Any person who violates the provision of Article 83 shall be punished with imprisonment for up to six months or detention, and/or a fine of up to NT$50,000

Article 131  The prosecution of the offenses specified in this chapter, except Article 130, may be instituted only upon complaint.  Upon instituting complaint pursuant to Article 125 and Article 126, the patentee shall submit a comparative analysis report to claim patent infringement.  The judge, prosecutor and judicial police officers, when having considerable reasons to believe it necessary to perform a search or seizure, shall attend to the reputation or property right of the defendant or crime suspect and perform the said actions by proper methods according to the doctrine of proportion. 

 

Translated by Corrina Wu