TIPS^®  Taiwan Intellectual Property Special

Article 15 of the Act provides:

"[T]rade secrets of a foreign entity whose country has not entered into any treaty or agreement affording mutual protection of trade secrets or the laws or regulations of whose country do not protect the trade secrets of an R.O.C. national shall not be protected hereunder."This Article clearly provides that the Act adopts the principle of reciprocity concerning the protection of foreigners' trade secrets.

In September, the IPO issued an explanatory ruling concerning the issue whether the trade secrets of an un-recognized Japanese juridical person are protected under the Act. Said ruling points out that, though Japan has not signed any treaty or agreement with the R.O.C. for mutual protection of trade secrets, the Law on Prohibition of Unfair Competition in Japan (providing for trade secret protection) does not exclude an R.O.C. national from its protection of trade secrets. Therefore, whether our government will extend protection to the trade secrets of a Japanese national will depend largely on opinions of the judicial and/or the executive branches of Japan with respect to the protection of trade secrets of an R.O.C. national and without regard to whether the relevant Japanese juridical person is recognized or not. As such, in the future, the courts shall exercise its power to determine whether to protect trade secrets owned by a national of another country on a case-by-case basis.