Taiwan IP Court's Jurisdiction Over Abroad E-Commerce Sites

In a recent decision, the Taiwan IP Court rendered a new perspective on the test of determining whether a Taiwan court has jurisdiction over a foreign defendant whose products are sold to Taiwan via its website. Hsu v. Village Vanguard, 107 Min-Zhu-Kang 1 (IP Court 2018). This second-instance decision held that, to determine whether personal jurisdiction over a foreign defendant resides with a Taiwan court, the court should follow the general theory of jurisdiction in international law, taking into consideration all relevant factors including whether the foreign defendant can reasonably anticipate that Taiwan is one of its major markets or fields of activity.

Before Hsu

While Taiwan is a civil law country, no direct guidance is provided by any statutory law on how a court should decide whether it has jurisdiction over a dispute having a foreign element. This is an area where legislators intentionally remained silent and let the case law to prevail. Before Hsu, the