Winkler Partners

Translations of Taiwan securities laws and regulations updated

WP — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 02:06:27 +0000

Taiwan’s official portal for securities-related laws and regulations was recently updated with changes to nine of its English translations by Winkler Partners.

The Winkler Partners Translation Department has produced the English translations of securities laws and regulations for the portal since 2002. The portal is updated twice a month with new and revised content.

Currently, the site contains 1,453 securities laws and regulations, 603 of which have been translated into English. The site also contains 6,578 administrative letters of interpretation and 1,881 court judgments.

Winkler Partners closed on 12 June

WP — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 04:09:51 +0000

Winkler Partners will be closed on Wednesday June 12 for the national Duanwu Festival holiday. Urgent inquiries can be sent to info@winklerpartners.com.

Academic year internship

WP — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 04:18:04 +0000

Winkler Partners is looking for an intern for the academic 2013-2014 year from October 2013 to June 2014.

The basic qualifications include good analytic, research, and English writing skills. We will try to pair you with an intern from a Taiwanese law school.

You do not need to know any Chinese although you will be able to do more if you can. You do need to be either a native speaker of English or have near-native fluency.

Your duties would include curating social media sites, writing updates on legal topics, and light case work for 15-20 hours per week.

This is a (modestly) paid position: NT$200/hour.

The internship would be ideal for someone who is already studying Chinese or an academic subject in Taiwan and is thinking about law school.

All offers are conditional on whether we can obtain authorization for you to work in Taiwan.

Please send a resume and a brief writing sample to the attention of Melisa Wang (mwang@winklerpartners.com) if you are interested.

Peter Dernbach comments on proposed blocking of overseas file sharing sites

WP — Fri, 31 May 2013 02:28:33 +0000

Partner Peter Dernbach was recently interviewed by the World Intellectual Property Review on the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office’s plans to introduce legislation to block overseas file sharing sites. He explains the proposal is intended to protect Taiwan’s creative industries and that it has been mischaracterized as a firewall.

Executive Yuan approves bill to amend Intellectual Property Adjudication Act

WP — Tue, 28 May 2013 08:54:08 +0000

Taiwan’s Executive Yuan has approved a bill to amend three articles of the Intellectual Property Adjudication Act (IPAA). The bill was drafted based on recommendations by the Judicial Yuan’s Committee on Trial Procedures for Intellectual Property Cases.

In addition to some minor technical changes, the bill clarifies that Technical Examination Officers may “provide assistance” in precautionary proceedings and enforcement proceedings. IPPA §4. Precautionary proceedings are proceedings for remedies including preliminary injunctions and attachment. The current language of Article 4 limits the role of Technical Examination Officers to assisting the court in investigating evidence to preserve it and was silent on whether they had any role in enforcement proceedings.

The bill also establishes the appellate jurisdiction of the Intellectual Property Court over criminal violations of orders to preserve the confidentiality of trade secrets.

Following approval by the Executive Yuan, the bill was sent to the Legislature for consideration. If enacted, the bill will be the first amendment to the IPAA since it took effect in 2007 just before the establishment of the Intellectual Property Court.

Translations of Taiwan securities laws and regulations updated

WP — Fri, 17 May 2013 04:48:41 +0000

Taiwan’s official portal for securities-related laws and regulations was recently updated with changes to nine of its English translations by Winkler Partners.

Currently, the site contains 1,453 securities laws and regulations, 587 of which have been translated into English. The site also contains 6,562 administrative letters of interpretation and 1,851 court judgments.

Freedom of Government Information in Taiwan

Michael Fahey — Fri, 10 May 2013 09:45:07 +0000

Taiwan’s Freedom of Government Information Act (FGIA) took effect in 2005. It was enacted to

…establish institutions for the publication of government information, facilitate people to share and fairly utilize government information, protect people’s right to know, further people’s understanding, trust and overseeing of public affairs, and encourage public participation in democracy. FGIA § 1 (translation slightly revised).

Despite these broad policy objectives, disclosure of government information under the Act is preempted by other laws governing disclosure. FGIA § 2. For example, Taiwan’s Classified National Security Information Protection Act provides that top secret documents are automatically declassified after 30 years, but the black out period can be extended once for another 30 years. This rule partially frustrated China Times reporter Jiang Hui-chen’s efforts to investigate the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’s archives by applying under the FGIA for information about Taiwan’s withdrawal from the United Nations in 1972.

The FGIA permits foreigners to apply for information if “the laws of their countries do not restrict nationals of the Republic of China from requesting government information in the foreigner’s country.” FGIA § 9.

The Chinese-language application for government information is available on the Ministry of Justice’s website. A number of government agencies also provide sample applications with instructions. The application can be filed with any central government agency or local government although first-time or overseas applicants may need assistance in determining the correct agency. After an application is filed, the agency has 15 days to act on the request for information. The review can be extended once for 15 more days. FGIA § 12.

If the information relates the rights or interests of another person, legal person, or group, the government agency is required to notify the third party of the request in writing. The third party has 10 days to comment. FGIA § 12.

The agency should approve the application if the public interests served by the requested disclosure outweigh the harm to third party rights caused by the disclosure.

Unfortunately, there is no single source for statistics on requests approved and denied. Subordinate agencies and local governments report approvals and denials on their websites regularly but only in Chinese. Nonetheless, a few examples will show that requests are made and approved with some frequency. For example, the National Immigration Agency had 300 requests for files in the first three quarters of 2012. Of these 111 requests were approved in full while 118 were partially approved. Seventy-one applications were completely denied.

In the first quarter of 2012, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs received 2,070 applications for files and approved all of them in full.

Perhaps surprisingly, the Environmental Protection Agency received just 6 applications in 2011. Four applications were for files and two ere for “other government information.” Of these applications, just one was approved in full, three were partially approved, and two were denied. The Environmental Jurists Association has a thorough discussion (again in Chinese) of a hypothetical application by a citizen who wants to obtain information about a polluting factory where the polluting factory objects to the disclosure.

An applicant for government information can appeal agency decisions that deny access to information. The appeal must be first made to the denying agency before the unsuccessful applicant has standing to challenge the decision in the administrative courts.

Applicants regularly bring actions in the administrative courts when their applications are denied.

In 2010, the Ministry of Justice compiled freedom of information cases that reached Taiwan’s Supreme Administrative Court between late 2005 and 2010. The cases involved 14 of the FGIA’s 24 Articles. Article 18, which sets forth restrictions on government disclosures of information, was the most frequently cited provision.

In these 41 cases, just three plaintiffs prevailed. The prevailing plaintiffs included a construction company who had been the subject of an adverse decision by Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission. The company sought complete records of the Commission’s proceedings in the case that resulted in the adverse decision. Pan Zi No. 130 (2008).

The second successful plaintiff was an individual seeking information from the Ministry of Defense about a military housing compound for use in other litigation. Cai Zi No. 4335 (2008).

The third successful plaintiff was the Humanistic Education Foundation, a well-known education reform group. The Foundation sought information and documents related to Changhua County’s 2006 Textbook Selection Pilot Program from primary and secondary schools in Changhua. Pan Zi No. 579 (2010).

Taiwan Financial Ombudsman Institution in 2012

WP — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 07:25:21 +0000

Taiwan’s Financial Ombudsman Institution (FOI) is reporting that it received 4,739 complaints from investors against financial institutions in 2012 and 2,846 applications for decisions in its first full year of operations.

The FOI was established under the Financial Consumer Protection Act (FCPA) as a public-interest foundation whose mission is to resolve disputes between financial consumers and financial service providers including banks, securities firms, and insurers. We reviewed the FOI’s operations, organization, and early results last April.

In 2012, the FOI made 82 decisions awarding damages or other remedies. Of these, 32 were banking disputes, 38 were life insurance disputes, and 2 were property insurance disputes. Insurance disputes include disputes between insureds and insurers, insurance brokers, insurance agents, and loss adjusters.

According the FOI’s categorization of disputes decided in 2012, most banking disputes involved solicitation, failure to provide agreed-upon services,and account-related disputes. Disputes over life insurance claims most frequently involved the cause of death, the amount of the insurance payment, and the scope of coverage. Other types of life insurance disputes included solicitation disputes, disputes over the termination and revival of coverage, and disputes over agreed-upon services.

Property insurance disputes over claims included disputes over the degree of the property loss, the amount of the insurance payment, and delays in making payments.

Other types of property insurance disputes included disputes over failures to provide promised services, renewals, and claim handling procedures.

Partners attend IPBA Annual Meeting in Seoul

WP — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 02:26:37 +0000

Partners Chen Hui-ling and Peter Dernbach are attending IPBA 2013 in Seoul this week. Over 1,200 IPBA members from over 67 national jurisdictions worldwide are attending. This year’s theme is the future of law and business in the Asia-Pacific region and will also serve as an opportunity for participants to experience South Korea’s dynamic economy first-hand and meet leading practitioners in South Korea’s recently liberalized legal services market.

Implementation of Taiwan’s new privacy law

WP — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 10:43:21 +0000

Partner Chen Hui-ling contributed this comment to Privacy Laws & Business International Report on the implementation of Taiwan’s new Personal Information Privacy Act since October 2012. Her article appeared in the February 2013 issue.