TAIWAN
August 01, 2017
The Taiwanese Intellectual Property Organization has recently published a new draft regarding their Trade Secrets Act. According to the Draft, any intentional use of misappropriated trade secrets outside of Taiwan will be pursued only on receipt of a formal complaint.
Committing trade secret misappropriation beyond the Taiwan is a crime being publicly prosecuted under the current law. However, as the practice demonstrates, evidence collection and fact finding in the course of investigation of trade secret infringement case can be both difficult and time-consuming. It becomes even harder when the stolen secret is to be used abroad. Going forward, if a victim is able to withdraw the complaint against offenders who cooperate with the investigation, it may also provide an incentive for some suspects to reveal the truth and thus facilitates and advances the course of the criminal investigation.
Other implications in this new draft will include the ability of unrecognized foreign entities to file a complaint, the discretionary limitation of disclosure of trade secrets during the course of trial discovery and reciprocal treatment of Foreign Trade Secrets for countries or institutions that enter into a relevant bilateral treaty or agreement with the Taiwanese governing body and/or organization/institution.
The TIPO has also brought into effect, starting July 1st , a new process in evaluating the inventiveness of an application, indicating that if an expert, in view of the prior art, would have arrived at the claimed invention through logical analysis, inference or routine work and experimentation, the claimed invention is obvious and can be easily accomplished. Also, the TIPO has revised its guidelines in relation to post-grant patent amendments, aiming at providing clearer rules for determining whether a post-grant amendment substantially enlarges or alters the scope of the claims as issued.