Anything that serves to “identify” something, whether in the form of words, patterns, graphics, colors, holograms or sounds, could soon be submitted for trademark protection in Taiwan.
A draft amendment of the Trademark Act (商標法) that would expand the categories of items eligible for trademark registration made it through a legislative committee reading yesterday, but has still to pass two more reviews by the full legislature.
Wang Mei-hua (王美花), -director--general of the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Intellectual Property Office (IPO), said that if the revised law is passed, animation and holograms that appear on cellphones could also receive trademark protection.
She said the Nokia Corp image that appears when its cellphones are turned on has already been registered as a trademark in several countries and the firm could also apply for protection in Taiwan if the draft bill is passed.
Wang was also asked about the legality of selling counterfeit products on the Internet, which has become confused following different court rulings as to whether selling such products online constitues an act of “displaying and selling.”
According to the draft bill, any digital medium or Internet site that agrees to sell counterfeit products would be engaging in copyright infringement.
However, fines for counterfeiters could be reduced. Currently, conviction for the sale of counterfeit bags is accompanied by a minimum fine of 500 times the bag’s value, which has pushed fines as high as NT$100 million (US$3.48 million) in some cases, which the Intellectual Property Office did not feel was proportionate to the crime, Wang said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group