VZCZCXRO8703
PP RUEHCN RUEHGH RUEHVC
DE RUEHIN #0109/01 0230948
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 230948Z JAN 08
FM AIT TAIPEI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7969
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 TAIPEI 000109 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE PLEASE PASS TO AIT/W AND EAP/RSP/TC 
 
STATE PASS USTR/DAVID KATZ AND JARED RAGLAND 
 
USDOC FOR 4430/ITA/MAC 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON ETRD KIPR TW
SUBJECT: Taiwan IPR: DVC Focuses on ISP Law, IP Court 
 
Reftel: Taipei 49 
 
Summary 
------- 
 
¶1.  (SBU) On January 15, as part of an ongoing dialogue under the 
bilateral Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA), U.S. and 
Taiwan experts held a digital video conference (DVC) focused on 
intellectual property rights (IPR) issues.  The meeting was 
constructive and friendly, and provided an opportunity for U.S. 
experts to question Taiwan counterparts about progress in 
implementing the recently-passed Peer-to-peer (P2P) law as well as 
the Ministry of Education (MOE) Campus IP Action Plan.  The U.S. 
side also raised concerns about MOE willingness to both receive and 
share information on enforcement efforts with right holders.  USTR 
enquired about Taiwan Intellectual Property Rights Office (TIPO) 
efforts to draft amendments to the Copyright Law that would limit an 
Internet service provider's (ISP) liability if the ISP quickly 
removed IPR-infringing material, and requested that TIPO accept 
another round of feedback from the USTR on the current version of 
the amendments.  TIPO passed this current version to the U.S. side 
on January 22. End Summary. 
 
Introduction 
------------ 
 
¶2.  (SBU) On January 15, about 20 officials from the Taiwan 
Intellectual Property Office (TIPO), Ministry of Justice, Judicial 
Yuan, Office of Trade Negotiation (OTN), Board of Foreign Trade 
(BOFT), and the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) met via DVC with 
officers from USTR, AIT/W, State, Commerce, and the Copyright Office 
to discuss a TIPO-proposed amendment to Taiwan's Copyright Law and 
get an update on recent IPR developments in Taiwan.  The U.S. team 
was headed by Jared Ragland, Director, Intellectual Property and 
Innovation, USTR.  In Taiwan, the discussion was led by Margaret 
Chen, Deputy Director General of TIPO.  This DVC was part of the 
ongoing bilateral IPR dialogue. 
 
IP Court, IP Action Plan 
------------------------ 
 
¶3. (SBU) The first issue on the DVC agenda was a status report from 
the Taiwan side on the implementation of the specialized 
Intellectual Property (IP) Court.  Judge Wei-xin Lee of the Judicial 
Yuan reiterated that the Court will open as scheduled on July 1, and 
will be staffed by eight IP-specialist judges, up to 15 TIPO patent 
examiners, and three prosecutors. Lee expects that the Court will 
handle 2200 to 3000 cases per year. 
 
¶4. (SBU) The Court will handle appeals from criminal copyright and 
trademark infringement cases, as well as administrative cases of 
copyright, patent, and trademark infringement. [Note: there are no 
criminal patent cases under Taiwan law. End note.] For civil cases, 
the Court can act as both the court of first instance as well as a 
court of appeals for copyright, patent, and trademark cases.  Mr. 
Lee explained that cases currently in the court system will not be 
able to switch venues mid-trial to the new IP Court, but plaintiffs 
and defendants in cases closed by June 13 who decide to file appeals 
after July 1 may use the new Court. 
 
Next Steps for ISP Legislation 
------------------------------ 
 
¶5. (SBU) The 2007 Legislative Yuan (LY) session ended before TIPO 
could finalize and send to the LY amendments to the Copyright Law 
that would limit an ISP's liability if the provider meets certain 
conditions, including quickly removing IPR-infringing material 
(reftel). TIPO Secretary General Margaret Chen told the U.S. side 
that TIPO will send the amendments to the Copyright Law back to the 
Executive Yuan (EY) for consideration by the end of April.  If the 
EY approves the amendment, the changes would then move to the LY for 
consideration. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) TIPO--which has given the United States several 
opportunities to comment on the proposed Copyright Law 
amendments--again agreed to accept U.S. comments on the current 
version of the draft Law.  Ragland thanked Chen for this additional 
opportunity and said that the U.S. side would get comments back to 
TIPO by the end of January.  TIPO agreed to provide the United 
States the current text of the proposed amendments. [Note: TIPO 
provided the updated draft amendments to AIT on January 22. End 
note.] 
 
Campus IP Action Plan Status Report 
----------------------------------- 
 
TAIPEI 00000109  002 OF 002 
 
 
 
¶7.  (SBU) The MOE Director of Student Affairs Committee Chih-chung 
Yang explained that the Action Plan was achieved through consensus 
between the stakeholders, including the Ministry, the universities, 
student groups, and right holders, and that all stakeholders would 
continue to have twice-yearly opportunities to provide comment and 
feedback to each other about the Plan's progress.  Yang added that 
cases of alleged infringement on the island-wide Taiwan Academic 
Network (TANet) fell from 476 and 343 in the first and second 
quarters of 2007, respectively, to 166 and 194 cases in the latter 
two quarters, which the MOE sees as a good sign for implementation 
efforts. 
 
¶8. (SBU) In response to Ragland's comment that right holders feel 
they do not have an effective channel to provide comments to the 
Ministry and are not receiving  responses from the MOE on progress 
implementing the Plan, particularly on MOE actions in response to 
specific information on infringing activities provided by industry, 
Yang re-iterated that the Ministry views such opportunities as being 
sufficient, and added that some of the information on specific TANet 
infringements that IFPI and other right holders have provided the 
MOE has been inaccurate. Ragland thanked the MOE for its efforts, 
encouraged more frequent coordinating meetings with stakeholders to 
more effectively implement the Action Plan, and asked for further 
reporting on the Plan's progress as available. 
 
APEC Campus IP Plan: Whose Idea Anyway? 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Regarding Taiwan's expressed support for the United States 
to lead a Campus IP initiative within APEC, Ragland and Katz both 
apologized for Taiwan having the impression that the United States 
had proposed launching an initiative.  Ragland added that the 
February APEC Intellectual Property Experts Group (IPEG) meeting 
that will be held in Peru will be a good opportunity for the two 
sides to meet informally to brainstorm on ideas for such a possible 
initiative. 
 
ACTA: Too Early for Specifics 
----------------------------- 
 
¶10. (SBU) Regarding the current status of the Anti-Counterfeiting 
Trade Agreement (ACTA) initiative under discussion by the United 
States, Japan, the European Union, and others, Ragland thanked TIPO 
for its interest and support, but noted that the initiative is still 
very much in the pre-negotiation stages, and that he did not have 
specific information on the initiative to share at the time. 
 
Comment 
-------- 
 
¶11.  (SBU) The DVC was constructive and friendly, and TIPO seemed to 
clearly understand the specific concerns that USTR passed to the 
Taiwan side in December regarding TIPO's proposed ISP legislation. 
Although they did not make any commitments to alter the legislation, 
TIPO promised to consider our feedback before passing a final draft 
to the EY in late April, as well as to keep us posted on the 
progress. AIT will continue to monitor the issue closely.  End 
comment.