On January 12, 2023, Taiwan's Legislative Yuan passed amendments to the Intellectual Property Case Adjudication Act (智慧財產案件審理法), hoping to make the intellectual property litigation system more professional, efficient, and in line with international standards. The Amendments will also enhance the protection of trade secrets. Taiwan’s Judicial Yuan announced the amendments will take effect on August 30, 2023.
Focuses of the Amendments include:
- Strengthening the protection of trade secrets in litigation: the Intellectual Property and Commercial Court has the exclusive jurisdiction over the first instance of all civil proceedings arising out of trade secrets misappropriation, as well as criminal proceedings involving violations of provisions of Article 13-1 to 13-4 of the Trade Secrets Act, which impose criminal penalties upon those who intentionally misappropriate, copy, or disclose trade secrets without due cause.
- Requiring parties to be represented by attorneys when the parties are litigating matters in relation to, among others, (1) the first instance of all IP-related lawsuits where the value of the subject matter exceeds NT$1,500,000; (2) the first instance proceeding where the subject matter involves patent, computer software copyright, or trade secrets; (3) the second instance proceeding of all IP-related lawsuits.
- Expanding the participation of experts in trials: introducing the inspection system and expert witness system.
- Adopting concentrated trials for intellectual property cases.
- Establishment of an information exchange system between the IP Court and the IP Office- This will hopefully allow the Court or the Office to avoid the possibility of rendering contradictory rulings due to lack of information.
- Disclosure of technical reports authored by technical examination officers, who are appointed by the IP Court to help IP Court judges to understand technical issues involved in each of the IP cases to parties.
- Enhancing the technological equipment for adjudication and upgrading the E-justice system.
- Introducing a victim participation system.
- Resolving disputes arising from the post-grant amendments to patent claims during patent litigation proceedings.
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