Newsletter
NO NEW EVIDENCE ADMISSI-BLE IN TRADEMARK ADMINIS-TRATIVE LITIGATION?
There have been differing opinions in practice as to whether it is permissible to introduce new facts or evidence during administrative litigation in trademark registration, opposition, invalida-tion, or revocation cases, or in patent application, opposition, or cancellation cases, and whether the courts are obliged to consider such new facts or evidence.
A judgment of the Taipei High Administrative Court in a 2003 trademark opposition case, and a resolution of the divisional chief judges of the Supreme Administrative Court at a meeting on 30 December 2003 with respect to trademark revocation cases, both stated that the aim of an action for revocation in administrative litigation was to examine whether an administrative deci-sion had been unlawful; and that new evidence not introduced until during the administrative litigation proceedings was new evidence that could not have been considered by the Intellec-tual Property Office at the time of its original administrative decision, and therefore fell out-side the scope of matters to be examined in the litigation, and the court would not consider such information.
Subsequently, in a 2004 judgment, the Taipei High Administrative Court held, based on the principle of separation of powers, that if infor-mation that should have been brought forward during the opposition procedure was brought forward only during litigation, then because the information had not been verified and considered by the IPO, the court could not review it in the IPO's stead during administrative litigation.
However, it is worth noting that in another 2004 judgment, the Taipei High Administrative Court stated that the December 2003 resolution of the chief judges of the Supreme Administrative Court had been merely an interpretation regard-ing a specific case, and that if in the course of administrative remedies the grounds for opposi-tion had ceased to exist due to changed circum-stances, the courts should still consider this new fact.