The US Trade Representative’s (USTR) office is being urged to keep a close eye on intellectual property rights violations — particularly in terms of computer programs — in Taiwan.
A new report containing the recommendation comes as a surprise because for the first time in 10 years Taiwan was removed from all watch lists in a USTR “out-of-cycle” review decision last month.
The latest report, prepared by the powerful International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), said that Taiwan poses some “specific problems for industry,” but does not detail what they are.
“IIPA recognizes Taiwan for the improvements it has made, but requests USTR to continue to carefully monitor its progress, since some key concerns remain,” the report said.
Eric Smith, an official with the IIPA, said: “With the US economy shedding jobs at an alarming rate, our government needs to redouble its efforts to stem massive global theft of US copyrighted works in physical form and on the Internet.
“Piracy causes significant economic losses to our country, undermining industries and companies that historically have generated new jobs at a rate two to three times greater than that of our economy as a whole.”
Rupert Hammond-Chambers, president of the US-Taiwan Business Council, told the Taipei Times: “This is an organization [IIPA] that carries a lot of weight and they are putting down a marker.”
“They are registering their concerns that, even though Taiwan has been taken off the 301 Watch List, the situation needs to be closely watched. They are worried about the continuing illegal sharing of movies and songs and Internet programs. It’s significant, and they want to make sure that Taiwan’s existing laws are enforced,” he said.
The IIPA said worldwide annual losses from piracy reported by the business software and recording industries conservatively total US$18.4 billion.
The IIPA estimates that in the last 12 months its members have lost US$126 million from intellectual property piracy in Taiwan.
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
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