2016 JIPA Representatives' visit to Taiwan
During November 17 to 18, 2016, a delegation of Asia PJ East Asia WG
consisting of the 3 members, leader Mr. Bekku (Managing Director), Mr.
Yoshihara (WG leader), and a Director General, visited the Taiwan Intellectual
Property Court, the Intellectual Property Office, and the Taiwan Ministry
of Economic Affairs in Taiwan (Taipei). In each agency, the delegation
members expressed their opinions on the handling of indirect infringement
and other legal revisions and exchanged opinions with the agency members.
In the Taiwan Intellectual Property Court, the delegation members exchanged
opinions with the agency members including Mr. Ter-Chao Lee (President),
Mr. Wei-Hsin Lee (Division Chief Judge), Mr. Jhong-Sing Chen (Division
Chief Judge), Mr. Sung-Mei Hsiung (High Court Judge), and others such as
assistant vice-ministers for engineering affairs of the court. The delegation
members exchanged opinions with the agency members on the joint-tort court
decision in Taiwan, which corresponds to the handling of indirect infringement
in Japan, and the practice of patents of software program inventions, and
expressed their opinions, for example, on the handling of joint torts equivalent
to that of indirect infringement in Japan and the uploading of programs
to be regarded as a selling act in terms of legal revisions and the administration
of trials.
In the Intellectual Property Office, the delegation members exchanged
opinions with 10 agency members including Mr. Sherry, Shu-Min Hong, who
was newly appointed as a Director General as of this year, and the Managers
of the examining division and the legal affairs office. The previous Director
General had positively considered JIPA'S requests and suggestions when
revising IP-related systems. Thus, the delegation members asked the new
Director General for continued positive consideration. In particular, although
they understood that it was politically difficult for Taiwan to accede
to the Paris Convention and PCT, they made detailed discussions on alternative
ways and the extension of the period in which applicants were allowed to
file divisional applications when receiving a Notice of Decision of Registration,
and introduced 14 request items including the 2 discussion items mentioned
above and requested the continued study and consideration of future systemic
revisions.
In the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the delegation members met the
Vice Minister, Ms. Mei-Hua Wang, who was promoted from the Director General
of the Intellectual Property Office to the Vice Minister (comparable to
the State Secretary) of the Ministry of Economic Affairs as of this year.
In the meeting, we expressed our gratitude for her past responses and asked
about her position. Ms. Mei-Hua Wang said that she was in charge of economic
and trade affairs in connection with Japan, and her departments and agencies
in charge included the Intellectual Property Office. The Vice Minister
also said that she entrusted the Intellectual Property Office with full
authority but in case of facing a problem such as a serious, economic and
trade problem that seems difficult to solve, she would be able to continue
to aid in consultation on such a problem through partnership with the relevant
parties.
