TIPS^®  Taiwan Intellectual Property Special

Merger of Tsai, Lee & Chen and Pan Asian Patent Office

According to the agreement signed by Thomas Tsai (the senior partner of Tsai, Lee & Chen) and Michael Tu (the president of Pan Asian) on June 12, 2000, Pan Asian Patent Office (also known as patent and trademark division of Deloitte & Touche, Taipei) will be merged and combined with Tsai, Lee & Chen. The merger will take effect as of July 1, 2000. All cases of Pan Asian will be transferred to Tsai, Lee & Chen. And all members of Pan Asian will continue their employment in Tsai, Lee & Chen. As a result of this merger, the firm name Pan Asian will no longer be used hereafter.

Grand Justices Declare the Prerequisites of Infringement Verification Report for Filing Patent Lawsuit Unconstitutional The Grand Justice Meeting made the Explanation No. 507 on May 16, declaring Paragraph 2 and Paragraph 3 of Article 131 of the Patent Law unconstitutional and that the above provisions shall be repealed as of May 16.

In the Explanation No. 507, the Grand Justices held that despite Article 16 of the Constitution Law bestows the right of litigation to people, which includes the right to file a petition with the judicial authority to prevent one’s interests from being illegally infringed, the way the exercise the right of litigation shall be governed by law. In order to avoid the misuse of the right of litigation, such as filing an abusive lawsuit, which would impede the freedom of other else, or to prevent the national judicial resources from being undue exhausted, the right of litigation can be reasonably confined, so long as such confinement complies with the Principle of Proportionality prescribed in Article 23 of the Constitution Law.