Newsletter
REGULATIONS GOVERNING HANDLING OF SECRET PRO-TECTION ORDERS BY COURTS BEING DRAFTED
To cope with implementation of the Act Gov-erning Establishment of IPR Court and Act Governing Handling of Cases by IPR Court which have been both promulgated, on 28 May 2007, the Judicial Yuan proposed the Draft Regulations Governing Handling of Secret Pro-tection Orders by Courts and will proceed with further law making procedure, for compliance by IPR courts when handling IPR cases. The draft Regulations set forth confidentiality protection measures that need to be adopted by in-charge personnel when handling documents and files that are under secret protection orders. The major contents of the draft Regulations are as follows:
．A document involving trade secret must be sealed in front of a clerk at the Receiving Section unless it is submitted to the court at a court hearing. If there is any unusual situation found, the situation and the reason(s) must be entered into the court record. A court clerk handling the brief receiving matters may not open any sealed document after receipt of the filed brief, and he/she must deliver the sealed document to the staff handling brief assign-ment matters.
．A case for which a secret protection order is issued must be sealed by a specially used folder, and be subject to brief assignment process separately by the section handling the concerned suit or evidence preservation mat-ters.
．With respect to storage of files of cases for which secret protection orders are issued, the chairman of the in-charge authorities should designate specific personnel to keep the same, and storage boxes should be prepared to store such files.
．Audiotapes recorded and electronic hearing transcripts made at court hearings by courts should be kept in folders for keeping evidence and the court clerks have to sign and date on the folders; the content of the electronic hearing transcripts and the audiotapes should be deleted at the end of the court hearings. When returning a document involving trade secret, a court clerk should make a written record and ask the concerned party to sign on the record before returning the document.
．Where the same court or another court gets access to a document under secret protection order, a written application for accessing file should be made, which needs to be approved by the judge in charge of the concerned case, before accessing the file. Proceedings with respect to access to and return of file should be personally handled by the court clerk, or the file should be transferred under storage boxes for documents involving trade secret.
．Where a request is filed by a party who is under secret protection order for reviewing the file/documents under a secret protection order, such request should be handled by the court clerk in person, and the scope of review and copying should be verified by the judge. Where a request is filed by a party who is not under secret protection order, the court clerk should handle it pursuant to Article 15 of the Act of Handling Cases by IPR Court.
．Preparing document preparing and proof-reading work which involves an event under secret protection order as well as affixing chops should be handled by a court clerk in person. The court staff handling chop affixing may not review the content of the prepared document.
．When handling the return of a file involving an event under secret protection order, the in-charge clerk should seal the court folder specifically used for the file, and affix the date of filing and the clerk's chop on the folder before returning the file to the section in charge of storage of such file. Staff handling file storage matters should only review the file pursuant to items listed on the folder, and he/she may not open the folder and should return the file for supplement if the informa-tion listed on the folder is found incomplete.
Lee and Li will monitor the drafting develop-ment of the draft Regulations and keep readers informed.