TIPS^®  Taiwan Intellectual Property Special

An Economic Espionage Act-like Bill in Taiwan

The Executive Yuan (Taiwan Cabinet) has finished reviewing the draft Science and Technology Protection Act (the Act), dramatically amending the scope of science and technology protection. In addition to regular intellectual property protection, the sensitive technology to national security has been included in the scope of protection and divided into three levels for administration. The penalties for intentional theft of science specialized technology, or the behavior that benefits any foreign government, organization or extraterritorial political entity should increase by 1/2, up to 10 years in prison or about US$450,000, and juridical person shall be held jointly liable.

Three levels’ identification will be based on the degree that the technology may influence on national security, interests or the nation’s capacity of competition. The Act is made by reference of U.S. Economic Espionage Act, and limits the scope to sensitive technology as narrow as possible. It is specified in the drafted act that the level one sensitive technologies are those having major influence on national securities; level two are technologies that have major influence on the nation’s capacity of competition in science and technology; and level three are those having certain influence on national security and nation’s ability to compete in science and technology. Application for approval is required for exporting or publishing level one and level two technologies; failure in complying with the requirement will result in sentences of 1-7 years and up to 3 years in prison respectively, along with a fine of US$300,000 and US$150,000, respectively. Reporting to the competent authority is also required to export or publish level three technologies; failure to comply with the requirement will result in a fine from US$1,515 to US$15,150.

Penalties for infringement on science specialized technology should be up to 5 years in prison, or with a fine of US$300,000. The definition of science specialized technology may be a method, way, system, program, design, process, data, or recipe of science technology, or other information that may be used to make, use, operate or exchange. The technology should meet the following requirement in order to be protectable: (1) it is not commonly known to the people who have access to information in the same kind; (2) it has actual or potential value because of the secrecy; and (3) the owner has adopted reasonable measures to protect the secret.