Articles from August 2007
Xbox Game Pirates Fined NT$8.88 Million
In another case demonstrating the increased willingness of Taiwanese courts to award relatively heavy damages in IP piracy cases, the Miaoli District Court has fined the operators of a business selling pirated Xbox games online NT$8.88 million (US$277,000). Xbox maker Microsoft had sued the defendants for copyright and trademark infringement after police seized more than 2,000 optical disks with pirated games. Microsoft had claimed damages of NT$302 million (US$9.4 million).
In June of this year, the Taoyuan District Court convicted an online dealer in unauthorized software and awarded NT$740 million (US$22.7 million) in damages to 10 international rights holders.
Categorised in Update. Tagged: IP copyright
Associate Works on GPL Licensing Compliance
Winkler Partners Associate Liu Yen-ling is working on a pro bono basis with the Free Software Foundation Europe and gpl-violations.org to help educate Taiwanese IT manufacturers about compliance with Free Software licences. The project involves reviewing and localizing guides in Traditional Chinese for GNU GPL (version 2) aimed at users and OEMs/OEDs.
Yen-ling has handled a number of complex software infringement and licensing cases for major US and Taiwanese software firms. For more information, contact Liu Yen-ling at +886-2-2311-2345 ext. 543.
Categorised in WP In the News. Tagged: IP
Intellectual Property Court Delayed
Although an official announcement has not yet been made, Winkler Partners has confirmed with the Judicial Yuan that Taiwan's long-awaited Intellectual Property Court will not begin hearing cases until January next year at the earliest. The Court had been scheduled to begin operations this month.
The Yuan attributes the delay in the opening to the Legislature's delay in passing in the 2008 general budget.
The new court,which will be seated in the New Banciao Station Tower in Banciao City Taipei County, will have 10 judges and an initial docket of some 1,700 cases, according to Chinese-language media reports. The judges will be assisted by technical personnel drawn at in part from the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office's corps of patent examiners.
The court is expected to have a major impact on IP enforcement in Taiwan, and many rights holders have been holding back complaints so that they can be heard by the new court.
For more information about Taiwan's Intellectual Property Court, please contact Peter J. Dernbach at +886-2-2311-2345 ext. 638.
Categorised in Update. Tagged: copyright , IP , IPO , patent , trademark
AILA's Global Immigration Guide: A Country-by-Country Survey, Taiwan Chapter
1.How many categories of temporary work permits or temporary work visas for foreign nationals are available?
The main categories of temporary work permits for foreign nationals are: specialized or technical workers; executives; teachers in public or registered private schools; foreign language teachers in cram schools; sport coaches and athletes; religious, art and entertainment workers; ship workers, workers for the marine fishing industry; domestic helpers; workers for jobs designated bythe relevant central competent authority in relation to major public construction projects or the needs of economic and social development; and other specialized experts approved by the central authorities...
Categorised in Feature. Tagged: immigration , labor , work permits
Draft Financial Services Act Released by FSC
The Financial Supervisory Commission has released its long-awaited draft of Taiwan's Financial Services Act (Chinese only). The draft law is intended to create a unified legal framework for the provision of financial services in Taiwan including banking, securities, futures, and insurance. This unified legal framework is the legislative counterpart to the Commission's unified supervision of the entire financial industry since 1 July 2004. The draft is accompanied by an extensive commentary. The draft bill has been approved by the Executive Yuan and sent to the Legislature.
For further information about the draft Financial Services Act, please contact Chih-Shan Lee at +886-2-2311-2345 ext. 333..
