Intellectual Property: The Legislative Yuan has on May 20th, 2014 passed the amendments to Intellectual Property Case Adjudication Act and Intellectual Property Court Organization Act, and Intellectual Property Case Adjudication Act has become effective on June 6th, 2014.

[2014/06/06]

The Legislative Yuan has on May 20th, 2014 passed the amendments to Intellectual Property Case Adjudication Act and Intellectual Property Court Organization Act, both of which have been promulgated by the President. The former amendments have become effective on June 6th, 2014; however, the Juridical Yuan has not yet prescribed the effective date for the latter. The brief of the amendments are outlined as below:

Amendments to Intellectual Property Case Adjudication Act
(1) The Technical Examination Officer may, upon the request of the court, provide assistance in the provisional remedies proceeding or civil enforcement proceeding.
(2) For the trade secret infringement case, the relevant evidences are usually held by one party and it tends to be difficult for the other party to access such evidence. For such consideration, the amendments additionally set forth that, once the plaintiff has made the preliminary showing over the alleged facts about the real or potential infringement of trade secret, the court shall require the defendant to submit a concrete defense within a designated period of time, if he/she denies the existence of the alleged fact. If the defendant fails to do so, the court may, at its discretion, take the plaintiff’s allegation as truth so as to push the parties to assist the courts to render a sound and just decision.
(3) Prior to the amendments, a civil intellectual property case, in addition to the intellectual property court, may also be heard by a district court upon the consent from both parties. In such case, the appeal against the judgment or ruling of the district court may be brought before a high court. In the consideration of the harmonization of legal interpretation, the amendments clearly state that an appeal against the judgment or ruling of a civil intellectual property case rendered by the court of the first instance, including those rendered by a district court, shall be brought before the intellectual property court.

Amendments to Intellectual Property Court Organization Act
In addition to the amendments to the organization matters of the intellectual property courts, following the additions to Trade Secret Act in 2013 regarding the criminal punishments on the trade secret infringement, the amendments set forth that the intellectual property court has the jurisdiction over the appeal against the judgment or ruling rendered by the district court of the first instance regarding such criminal cases or the violation of confidentiality prevention order under Intellectual Property Case Adjudication Act.