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
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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.