The Amendment to Taiwan’s IP Case Adjudication Act, which was passed by Taiwan’s Congress in January 2023, has come into effect today on August 30, 2023. This Amendment represents the most significant overhaul of the act since its inception in 2008.
The main features of the Amendment are as follows:
1. Mandatory representation and a specialized Division at the Supreme Court
Basically speaking, civil disputes relating to patents, software copyrights, and trade secrets shall all be mandatorily represented by lawyers since today. The same is true with other civil IP disputes unless the value of the plaintiff’s claims is low.
Simultaneously, the Supreme Court has established a specialized tribunal within one of its Divisions to handle appeals related to IP disputes.
2. Enhanced protection of trade secrets
According to the Amendment, the IP & Commercial Court (IPC Court) now possesses exclusive jurisdiction over both criminal and civil lawsuits involving trade secret infringement. If the infringement involves state-level key technologies, the criminal lawsuits should start from the appellate instance IPC Court instead of a district court. In addition, the Amendment has introduced the offence of “breach of trade secret maintaining order abroad” to further protect trade secrets in lawsuits. Read more