Draft amendments to Taiwan IP laws passes their initial review at Taiwan Legislative Yuan

　Taiwan Legislative Yuan completed the initial review of the draft amendments to partial provisions of the Taiwan Patent Act, Taiwan Trademark Act, and Taiwan Copyright Act on April 18, 2018 to stay current with the IP-related sections and provisions of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).  

　For fitness with the amended Taiwan Pharmaceutical Affairs Act that incorporates patent linkage system, the draft amendment to Taiwan Patent Act specifies the basis for new drug approval holders to initiate a patent infringement action and also the basis for generic drug approval applicants to file for a declaratory judgment seeking no infringement confirmation.  

　Under the draft amendment to Taiwan Trademark Act, an infringer’s “knowingly” requirement in the pre-amendment provisions is removed and replaced by “intentional” state of mind for establishing and assessing criminal punishment.  Civil liability for infringement is determined by subjective assessment of intention and negligence.  Moreover, with relevant provisions amended, making of counterfeit labels and packages will be subject to criminal penalties as well.  

　Moreover, in view of the fact that piracy nowadays no longer takes place only in the form of unauthorized copying on optical disk but also on USB, portable external hard drives, online transmission, etc., the proposed changes of Taiwan Copyright Act adjust the scope of crimes indictable without a complaint by deleting the wording of “reproduction onto an optical disk” and adding a condition that piracy in whatever form will constitute a crime indictable without a complaint as long as it is not gratuitous, a dead copy and the right holder suffers damages more than TWD1 million dollars.  (April 2018) 

/CCS