The Legal 500

Legal Developments in Taiwan

• Franchising Guidelines Revamped

  The Guidelines Governing Disclosure of Information by Franchisors were first promulgated by the Fair Trade Commission in 1999.
  - Formosa Transnational

• IP Court clarifies whether online publication counts in patent spat

  Under Taiwan’s patent law, an invention must not be published before a patent application is filed in order for it to be patentable.
  - Formosa Transnational

• Director’s Implied Agreement to Electronic Notice for Convening Board Meetings

  According to the Companies Act, “in convening a meeting of the Board of Directors, a notice setting forth therein the subject(s) to be discussed at the meeting shall be given to each Director and Supervisor no later than 7 days prior to the scheduled meeting date.
  - Formosa Transnational

• TIPO determines royalty rates for public performance

  The Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) recently completed a review of several copyright public performance royalty rates set by copyright collective management organizations (CMOs).
  - Formosa Transnational

• Rules for Compensation Committee Settled

  In the December/January 2011 issue, we reported that an amendment to the Securities and Exchange Law was adopted to request listing companies establishing compensation committees. And, under the authorization of the Law, qualifications of the members and the competence of the compensation committee will be promulgated by the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), the financial regulator in Taiwan.
  - Formosa Transnational

• Proposed Amendments to Insurance Law to Deter Unapproved Offshore Insurance Policies and...

  to Enable Collection of Sensitive Personal Data
  - Formosa Transnational

• Proposal to amend Company Law

  In 2009 the government proposed amendments to the Company Law (the Law) and on January 3 2011, the Economic Committee of Legislative Yuan passed the first reading of the amendments. The main points are summarised below.
  - Formosa Transnational

• Taiwan Company Law provides favourable conditions for business establishment

  The codified Taiwan Company Law constitutes the major regime of Taiwan corporate law and systematically covers matters from establishment, management and audit structure, accounting, merger and split-up to dissolution and liquidation.
  - Formosa Transnational

• Taiwan provides safe harbour for ISPs in copyright infringement cases

  On 21st April 2009, in light of the increase in online copyright infringement in recent years, the Legislative Yuan completed the third and final reading of the Internet Service Provider (ISP) Liability Limitation Bill, which amends the Copyright Act to strengthen the protection of copyrighted materials on the Internet.
  - Formosa Transnational

• Amendment to patent examination guidelines regarding determination of filing dates

  In order to harmonise Taiwan’s practice further with international patent prosecution practice, the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) recently completed an amendment to the Procedural Examination Guidelines. The amendment focuses on how to determine the filing date of a patent application.
  - Formosa Transnational