Executive Yuan passing bill of draft to include aborigines’ traditional intellectual creation into scope under protection
E021114Y3 Dec. 2002（E40）
The Executive Yuan passed the draft Law of Protection on Aboriginal Traditional Intellectual Creation on November 13, 2002, which defines that any of the aborigines’ traditional folklore arts and representations of other cultural achievements, such as traditional religious rituals, music, dance, songs, sculptures, weave, designs and dress, can be included into the scope under protection as long as they have been registered at the competent authority upon the authority’s approval. Nevertheless, in order to prevent excessive protection from being granted, the draft law invoked the spirit of Article 10-1 of the Copyright Law to limit the objects under protection to the expression of creations without extending to the concept thereof, so as to open a free space for the descendents to carry out the creation of concepts.
The ownership of intellectual creations may vest in an individual or the applicant and the specific aborigine/ tribe jointly. In the event that the specific aborigine/tribe cannot be identified, the exclusive right of the intellectual creations shall vest in the entire aborigines. Nevertheless, the exclusive right of the intellectual creations shall not be assigned, pledged or regarded as the object subject to compulsory execution. The exclusive right owner shall not transfer the exclusive right to another person or non-aborigines on a buyout basis, as such exclusive right is different from those supplied with property rights in nature.
In accordance with the draft law, in the event that the aborigines’ traditional intellectual creations are infringed, the right owners of them are eligible to claim damages pursuant to Article 216 of the Civil Code.
