Legislative Yuan Heard Public Opinions on Proposed IP Court Related Acts Again.　With Proposed System Structure Disputed, When IP Court Will Be Ready for Operation Is Unknown.

　The Legislative Yuan Judiciary Committee held a public hearing again on 23 October 2006 on the proposed Act Governing Trial of Intellectual Property Cases.  Most of the participants hoped that the Legislators withheld the deliberation of the proposed Act article by article before the entire workable legal framework is proposed in full for enactment.  IP rights holders’ groups such as the IFPI and the representatives from the legal community hoped that the criminal aspect of copyright infringement cases at the district court level be referred to the IP court as well.  In response, the Judicial Yuan says the criminal aspect of copyright infringement matters may be decided by the district court as most of the defendants are vendors in local night markets.

　Scholars and experts attending the hearing commented that the Act as proposed did not provide if all actions arising from intellectual property rights must be initiated in the IP Court and whether the IP Court has exclusive jurisdiction over intellectual property disputes.  Further, one of the main purposes of establishing the IP Court is to simplify the litigation procedure and shorten the time of IP lawsuits.  However, according to the proposed Act, the civil aspect (i.e. infringement issue) and the administrative aspect (i.e. validity issue) of patent right disputes still will be tried separately.  That is, the litigation procedure will stay the same.

　In response to the scholars’ and experts’ comment, the Judicial Yuan indicated that the civil, criminal and administrative aspects of an IP dispute may be tried concurrently in the IP Court.  For example, when examining the civil law issues of a patent infringement case, the judge no longer needs to suspend the proceeding pending the administrative decision on the validity issue.  Instead, he or she may forthwith determine if the patent in question is valid or not.  Under the current system, the civil and criminal proceedings on IP disputes must be suspended pending the relevant administrative decision on the IP right validity issue.  In other words, timely legal protection of IP rights is difficult to attain.

　Under the current system, IP infringement actions are initiated in ordinary courts.  However, there are only a total 6 civil court judges and 13 criminal court judges who have obtained the special certificate in IP area and only 3 judges in the High Administrative Court are specialized in trying administrative actions arising from IP disputes.

　Lawyers and scholars present at the hearing also raised various questions about the position of the technical examiner as a legal matter as well their functions in the IP Court.  It seems there is still a long road ahead to the legislation of the Intellectual Property Court Organic Act and the Act Governing Hearing of Intellectual Property Cases.  (2006.10)

/EMA