08 August, 2007
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.
