Newsletter
PROCEDURAL BILL FOR IPR COURT PASSES FINAL READ-ING
Since 2004, the Judicial Yuan has been actively preparing for the establishment of the Intellectual Property Rights Court. To this end, the Judicial Yuan has presented two legislative bills: (1) the draft Act of Organization of the Intellectual Property Rights Court, and (2) the draft Act of Handling Intellectual Property Cases by IPR Court.
On 29 May 2006, the Legislative Yuan passed its first reading of the draft Act of Organization of the IPR Court. The draft provides for various types of IPR disputes that are currently handled by the ordinary courts and the administrative courts, respectively, to be brought together for adjudication by the IPR Court. The staff of the IPR Court will include technology review offi-cers, who will assist the court in making judg-ments on specialist technological issues and in collecting and analyzing related information. At the bill's first reading, legislators were unable to reach consensus on the qualifications for court-appointed technology review officer, so the article was held back for further discussion.
On 11 December 2006, the Legislative Yuan passed its first reading of the draft Act of Han-dling Intellectual Property Cases by IPR Court. After further discussion, the Legislative Yuan passed its final reading of the above-mentioned Act, which provides for all IPR litigation to be brought within the jurisdiction of the IPR Court, and for technology specialists to assist the court in its work. The draft also includes the following major provisions:
If the IPR Court considers it necessary during its hearing of an IPR litigation case, it may instruct a technology review officer to perform various duties. The draft sets out rules for technology review officers to refrain from handling a case on grounds of conflict of interest.
When hearing an IPR case involving trade se-crets, the court may close its proceedings to the public, and may restrict access to review, tran-scribe, or photograph the case files and other information relating to the litigation.
In civil or administrative IPR litigation, a party to the case, or a third party, that holds documents or items for inspection, may be fined if without legitimate grounds it fails to comply with a court order to produce such evidence. If necessary, the court may order compulsory enforcement.
In order to protect trade secrets while facilitating the progress of litigation, the court may, upon request, issue a confidentiality protection order in respect of an IPR case, and may impose criminal sanctions for a violation of such an or-der.
If the validity of an asserted intellectual property right is challenged in IPR litigation, the court may make its own determination as to whether there are grounds for the disputed right to be annulled or revoked. The draft excludes the provisions of other legislation that allow for the suspension of litigation pending the outcome of proceedings over the validity of IP rights.
If any party refuses without legitimate grounds to cooperate in evidence preservation procedures in civil or administrative IPR litigation, the court may overcome such refusal by force; but such force shall not exceed the level that is necessary.
If a party petitions the court for an injunction to preserve the status quo with a view to civil or administrative IPR litigation, the party must clearly set out the reasons for such an injunction. If its reasons are inadequate, the court should reject the petition. If no litigation is filed within 30 days after such an injunction is granted, the court may lift the injunction.
If the Legislative Yuan is able to complete the second and third readings of the draft Act of Organization of the Intellectual Property Rights Court, the IPR Court would be formally estab-lished and begin operations soon. Some 40 judges have thus far completed related training, and 10 are likely to be selected for transfer to the IPR Court. The Judicial Yuan is currently drafting procedural rules and other related regu-lations for the hearing of IPR cases. We will continue to closely follow the progress of this legislation, and keep our readers informed.