The Taipei High Administrative Court ruled yesterday to nullify a government decision on granting a compulsory license to a local manufacturer for five patents related to recordable compact discs (CD-Rs) owned by Royal Philips Electronics NV.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs' Intellectual Property Office (IPO) granted compulsory licenses to Gigastorage Corp (國碩科技) for five CD-R patents in 2004, despite strong objections from the Dutch electronics giant. The decision was confirmed by the ministry's Committee of Appeal in 2006.
But a European Commission report issued on Jan. 30 concluded that the nation's Patent Law (專利法) and related decisions made under it were inconsistent with WTO rules on intellectual property. The EU also demanded that Taiwan take concrete steps to amend its Patent Law and reverse the compulsory license decision within two months, threatening to start WTO trade dispute proceedings if the Taiwanese authorities failed to comply.
Philips Electronics Industries (Taiwan) Ltd welcomed the latest decision, saying that "the ruling affirmed that the decisions by the IPO and the Committee of Appeal are illegal and have no legal effect."
James Li (李俊杰), general manager of Philips Taiwan's Intellectual Property and Standards division, said the court verdict proved again that Philips was right on the issue.
IPO Director General Wang Mei-hua (王美花) said her office would decide whether to appeal the case to the Supreme Administrative Court after reviewing the reasons stipulated in the verdict.
A compulsory license is a decision by a government that permits another producer to use a patent without the consent of the patent holder.
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