America’s Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Taipei requested the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) to remove Taiwan from the Special 301 Watch List, a list of countries that are allegedly failing to adequately protect IPR and used as a trade tool.
Carrot more effective than stick?
In March, AmCham Taipei wrote a letter in which the laubable progress on the island was noted: Taiwan stenghtened its IPR legislation, tightened its enforcement, through the establishement of dedicated task forces, and the inauguration of a specialised IPR appelate court.
AmCham asserts that rewarding Taiwan for its achievement is the best encouragement for Taiwan “[..] to continue to move forward in IPR as parts of efforts to raise its investment environment to new levels of excellence.” Read AmCham’s request to Washington here.
Room for improvements
AmCham’s 2008 White Paper is called: ‘It’s Time to Get Down to Business’, see here.
The 2008 White Paper Committee on Intellectual Property & Licensing has produced a paper with recommendations to the Taiwan government, see here.
Crackdown on DVD copying factory
An example of Taiwan’s actions against IPR infringements could be found in the Taiwan News of yesterday: There was a report by the Central News Agency of Taiwan that the Chiayi (northern Taiwan) unit of the Intellectual Property Protection Brigade under the Taiwan Provincial Police Administration held a DVD copying factory under surveillance for half a year. Whether this is (too) long, is hard to say, with the given limited information in the article. Read here.
