Taiwan has decided to revoke a patent registration request by China on the use of the name of the ancient Chinese thinker Confucius (孔子), intellectual property rights officials said on Wednesday.
"After careful review, we have decided to revoke such a patent registration on the grounds that Confucius is a historical figure and his name should be considered a general term," said Hung Shu-min (洪淑敏), head of the Patent Section under the Intellectual Property Rights Bureau.
Her comment came after protests by local academics who lashed out at the bureau for approving in April the patent application by the Chinese language promotion center under China's Education Department.
The academics said it is absurd for the bureau to approve such an application as the name Confucius is commonly used in Taiwan and other parts of the Chinese-speaking world.
They said the approval would mean all publications in Taiwan must take out that name.
Hung, however, said such a name could still be used in textbooks or other publications even if the patent application is approved.
Only those who want to use the name for an organization or any other registration would not be allowed, she said.
She said her office merely gave initial approval for the application, but after further review, it decided such an application was improper and it had already notified the applicant that her office would reject the application.
Confucius, or Master Kung, who lived from 551BC to 479BC, was a Chinese thinker and philosopher whose teachings have exerted strong influence in thought and life in China, Korea, Japan and Vietnam.
He emphasized morality, social justice and integrity.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai