Eager to shrug off its tag as a major source of pirated goods, Taiwan yesterday pledged that next year will be a year of action against infringements of intellectual property rights.
Minister without Portfolio Tsai Ching-yen (蔡清彥) reported to the Cabinet yesterday that while progress had been made among government ministries on combating IPR violations, there was still much to do.
"Hopefully we will be able to learn from experience and improve our position on IPR," Tsai said, referring to Taiwan's inclusion on the "Special 301 priority watch list" by the Office of the US Trade Representatives, for failing to take effective action against commercial piracy.
Tsai also said the nation needs to clean up its act as its business practices will come under an international microscope when it formally enters the WTO in January.
"After we enter the WTO our IPR policy will face severe challenges in the international arena," Tsai said.
One of the biggest challenges for the government in dealing with IPR is coordinating different government agencies, Tsai said.
Because six agencies are involved in different levels in dealing with the problem, Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) instructed Tsai to coordinate a united response and brief the Cabinet on his efforts every six months.
"At an inter-ministerial meeting in April all agencies were told to come with there own action plan to deal with the problem," Tsai said.
The National Police Administration reported that as of October, 538 trademark violations, 118 patent violations and 417 cases of software piracy had been reported this year.
Last year authorities confiscated NT$7.96 billion (US$247 million) in counterfeit products, including CD-ROMs, video games, DVDs and VCDs.
Led by the Ministry of Economic Affairs' Intellectual Property Office, an action plan to promote effective enforcement will be ready within one month, said Tsai.
The Business Software Alliance, which fights software piracy and boasts members such as Intel, IBM, Microsoft and Dell, has already been in close contact with the government concerning the problem and has offered its help, Tsai said.
The agencies' work against IPR infringements will be overseen by the Cabinet-level National Information and Communication Initiative Task Force, headed by Tsai.
Another of the task force's programs is to wire the entire country, starting with linking the government and industry into an integrated communications system via the Internet.
Called "e-Taiwan," and approved by the Cabinet yesterday, the plan will cost an estimated NT$40 billion over five years, Tsai said.
"The plan will necessitate the local development of software, in which Taiwan is not so strong," said Tsai, who added local software development would provide incentive to more seriously tackle IPR violations.
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