Legal

Taiwan Legislative Yuan Approved Cross-Strait Agreement on IP Rights Protection and Cooperation

On June 29th, 2010, China and Taiwan signed the Cross-Strait Agreement on Economic Cooperation Framework (ECFA) along with the Cross-Strait Agreement on Intellectual Property Rights Protection and Cooperation (IPR Agreement). The Legislative Yuan subsequently examined and approved both documents, thereby completing the national procedure through which both Agreements took effect as of September 12, 2010.

What attracts the most attention in the IPR Agreement is the mutual recognition of priority rights. Both countries being members of WTO provides China and Taiwan the acceptable legal basis to mutually recognize priority right claiming on the other side. To ensure the national laws better match specific wordings in accordance with the IPR Agreement, the Legislative Yuan immediately passed relevant amendments to Patent, Trademark and Plant Varieties Acts, namely, articles related to the entitlement for recognition of priority rights in Taiwan. The amended articles reflect that an applicant from countries or WTO members which reciprocally allow Republic of China (ROC) nationals to claim priority for his/her patent/trademark application, may claim priority for the applicant’s ROC application if he/she has filed his/her patent/trademark application for the same invention/trademark in the prescribed period of time (12 months for patent application from the first filing date, compared with 6 months for trademark application).

To one’s slight dismay, it is not clear whether the new policy may apply to foreign entities that file patent, trademark or plant varieties applications on one side of the Strait, then wish to file with priority claim on the other side.