經通國際智慧產權事務所

According to a news article published by udn.com on Jan. 5, 2010, the 2009 investigation report published by the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) discloses the data of that until the end of November 2009, more than 60% of intellectual property infringement cases were committed via the Internet. Therefore, in order to effectively control the Internet infringements, the TIPO plans to assemble the Internet service providers (ISP) in Taiwan for drawing up the “Third Strike” implementing regulations in 2010.

According to the Intellectual Property Rights Police Team’s latest investigation report, by the end of November 2010, the total of 1907 intellectual property infringement cases were seized in 2010. And among all of the seized cases, 63.31%, 21.44% and 7.71% were conducted via the Internet, the night markets and the shops, respectively. Shu-Mei Chen, the Deputy Chief of the TIPO, notes that intellectual property infringements conducted via the Internet peaked in 2006 and contributed more than 80% of all intellectual property infringement cases. Even though the percentage distribution has then declined to 63.31%, in order to allow intellectual property owners to effectively claim their rights over the Internet, the ISP Act was passed in April 2009 and took effect in November 2009.

Shu-Mei Chen explains that the ISP Act aims for the prohibition of infringements over the Internet, and the ISPs can avoid civil damage liability as long as they follow the “Notice & Take Down” principle to remove the illegal information. However, due to the lack of support from the law enforcement, and that the ISP Act has been enforced for only less than 2 months, the effect of the ISP Act has not been ideal. Thus, in 2010, the TIPO will carry out further collaboration with the ISPs to set a complete evaluation program.

The ISP Act also includes the “Third Strike” regulation which regulates that when infringements are claimed by intellectual property owners, after warning their user/client for three times, the ISPs are then allowed to disconnect their user/client’s connection or delete their user/client’s account. The TIPO elaborates on the “Third Strike” regulation by noting that the TIPO will assist the ISPs to draw up the definition and penalties of the said regulation so that the said regulation will be included in the agreements signed between the ISPs and their users/clients in 2010.

The TIPO also noted that because intellectual property infringements are now transferring to be conducted through the Internet in a globalized trend, the major bottlenecks for investigating such cases are due to infringing websites with IP addresses registered outside of Taiwan. And among such infringing websites, more than 50% and 30% of the websites are with IP addresses registered in China and the United Sates, respectively. Nevertheless, the TIPO hopes to solve the said geographical difficulty through international collaboration with China and the United Sates.

Derived and revised from udn.com

Organized and translated by Tony Chen

International Affairs