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.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS