Taiwan Quick Take: IPR judges to take training

Judicial Yuan Secretary-General Fan Kuang-chun (范光群) said yesterday that intellectual property courts would begin operating in March next year and that professional training for judges started in March this year. Fan made the remarks in response to a question from Taiwan Solidarity Union Legislator Liao Pen-yen (廖本煙) during a committee meeting at the Legislative Yuan regarding the judges' competency. Only those judges who have received special training in intellectual property rights (IPR) would be qualified to become IPR judges, Fan said, adding that the Judicial Yuan had selected about 40 judges from a pool of more than 80. The judges wouldn't serve as IPR judges until they had finished training courses, presented theses and passed a final examination, he added.