Executive Yuan Approved Draft Amendment to Intellectual Property Case Adjudication Act.

Taiwan’s Executive Yuan has approved a draft amendment on three articles of the Intellectual Property Case Adjudication Act (Article 4, 19, and 23) and the draft amendment has also been sent to the Legislature for deliberation. 

According to the Judicial Yuan, it is necessary to establish some procedural regulations for IP cases, such as, IP Court’s primary jurisdiction over IP civil cases, technical examination officers’ role in trial proceedings, and orders to preserve confidentiality of trade secrets that are specifically for dealing with the professional and technical aspects and elements always involved in IP cases.  The draft amendment compiles and consolidates opinions and suggestions from all sectors on issues with respect the technical examination officers’ role both in precautionary proceedings and enforcement proceedings and IP Court’s appellate jurisdiction over criminal violations of orders to preserve the confidentiality of trade secrets, etc..

Trade Secret Act has been integral to IPR protection regime.  The 1st subparagraph of Article 3 of the Intellectual Property Court Organization Act also designates IP Court’s jurisdiction over the civil actions in the first and second instances with respect to protection of intellectual property rights and interests arising under Trade Secret Act.  To enhance protection over trade secrets and further to upgrade Taiwan industry’s competitiveness in the world, Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan completed the 3rd reading of an amendment to the Trade Secret Act in January 2013 to establish criminal liability and penalties for infringement of trade secrets in the added Article 13-1 through Article 13-4, under which violation of Trade Secret Act shall be also regarded as criminal intellectual property cases.  The amended provisions have been promulgated on January 30, 2013. 

The main points of the draft amendment are summarized as follows. 

1.  Technical examination officers may provide assistance in both proceedings for evidence perpetuation and compulsory execution (Article 4).

2.  The paragraphs with respect to the one-judge panel on the first instance civil action and a collegial panel on the second instance appeals in civil actions are repealed from Article 19.  The amendment establishes the IP Court’s appellate jurisdiction over appeals or protest of the decision of a court of the first instance on a civil action (Article 19). 

3.  Violations of orders to preserve confidentiality of trade secrets as demanded in this Act and criminal violation of Trade Secret Act are defined as criminal intellectual property cases (Article 23).  (2013.05)
/CCS