萬國法律事務所

The new movie “Seediq Bale”(賽德克‧巴萊), directed by De-Sheng Wei (魏德聖), has been targeted in a trademark dispute before its release. The film company applied for trademark registration of Seediq Bale and Taiwan’s Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) approved the application for registration. However, according to Council of Indigenous Peoples (CIP) under the Executive Yuan, the Seediq people had sought for a long time and finally, on April 23, 2008, obtained CIP approval that the Seediq people are to be recognized as the 14th tribe of indigenous peoples in Taiwan. The Seediq people argued that according to Taiwan’s Trademark Law, Seediq Bale cannot be registered as a trademark because it is an expression of cultural achievement.

TIPO argued that the Seediq Bale trademark can be registered. Relevant trademarks related to Seediq Bale have been approved by TIPO from May 2009 and their trademark rights are valid until 2019. According to Article 30 of Taiwan’s Trademark Law, one who, through bona fide and fair use, expresses his name or title or other description with respect to the goods or services provided by himself for non-trademark purposes is free from the capacity of a trademark rights of a trademark owner. Under the current case, the people of Seediq tribe still can use Seediq without any breaching the law.

However, where the registration of a trademark violates the provisions of the Trademark Law, an interested party or a trademark examiner may request TIPO to invalidate said registration. As such, TIPO has advised the Seediq people that they can apply to invalidate the Seediq trademark registration and that if they can submit evidence proving that the registered trademark will likely cause confusion, the TIPO will consider canceling the registration for the Seediq trademark.