Draft amendments to Copyright Act and Trademark Act approved for a bid for access to CPTPP

E220120Y2・E220120Y3 Feb. 2022(E267)
 For Taiwan’s bid to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) trade pack, Taiwan IPO has spotted and examined the differences between Taiwan’s relevant regulations and the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP, CPTPP’s original version) since 2016, and therefore proposed the draft amendments to the Copyright Act and Trademark Act of Taiwan.  As the review of the proposed amendments were not finished by the Legislative Yuan during the 9th term, the proposed amendments were submitted to the Executive Yuan in 2020 again and approved thereby in the 3787th meeting on January 20, 2022 and will be submitted to the Legislative Yuan for deliberation.  

Highlights of the proposed amendment to the Copyright Act are as follows:  

1.  For reinforcing protection to copyright holders, acts of digital piracy, illegal distribution, and illegal public transmission that cause severe infringement will be considered the offense actionable (indictable) without complaint, and “infringement upon works provided with consideration”, “reproduction in original form (100% reproduction)”, and “infringement causing right holder’s damages of at least TWD1 million” are listed as the three conditions for determining and establishing the occurrence of serious infringement (amended Article 100). 

2.  In view of the facts that optical discs no longer serve as a significant form of infringement and pirated optical discs are included in the scope of digital piracy defined in the amended Article 100, the aggravated penalties for the indictable offenses of reproduction and distribution of pirated optical discs and the corresponding provisions stipulating confiscation by the court and confiscation by administrative agency under the current Copyright Act are repealed accordingly, and the penalties applicable to general offenses of illegal reproduction and distribution shall govern under the amendment (3rd paragraph of Article 91, 3rd paragraph of Article 91-1, Article 98, and Article 98-1 deleted).  

Highlights of the proposed amendment to the Trademark Act are as follows:

1.  According to the current Trademark Act, an infringer will be held civilly liable for infringement by counterfeiting labels when the infringer is found to commit infringement “knowingly”, which forms the subjective condition and requirement for sustaining the occurrence of infringement.  Under the amendment, such a subjective condition is removed, and the infringer’s “intention” or “negligence” will be the subjective conditions for sustaining the infringer’s general civil liability for damages for trademark infringement.  (Amended Article 68)

2.  Criminal penalties are added to be applied in cases involving offenses of importation of counterfeiting labels or packaging to which a registered trademark or collective trademark is applied without authorization, and criminal penalties will also apply to preparatory and contributory acts of infringement.  Such an amendment will be able to boost trademark holders’ sales and profits and also enhance trademark protection.  (Amended Article 95) 

3.  The current subjective condition for sustaining infringement, that is, the infringement being committed “knowingly”, is repealed with respect to the punishable offense of counterfeiting labels to which a sign similar or identical to another’s registered certification mark is applied and the offense of selling or having the intent to sell (or to possess) the infringing goods made by any other person.  Under the amendment, such a subjective condition is removed, and the infringer’s “intention” will be the subjective condition for sustaining the infringer’s criminal penalties, which will also apply to indirectly intentional acts that are foreseeable to cause infringement (Amended Article 96 and 97).  (Released 2022.01.20)   
/CCS
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