The legislature suggested listing intellectual property rights (IPR) protection in the government’s planned Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) with China, saying that IPR disputes involving Taiwanese businesses operating in China were common.
The legislature’s Organic Laws and Statutes Bureau brought up the proposal in its latest report on China’s existing IPR laws and their effect on Taiwanese businesses.
The report said that most legal disputes in the Chinese market were related to patents, trademarks and copyrights held by Taiwanese businesses, adding that the value of IPR has never been treated as an asset in China and Taiwanese businesses have been unsuccessful in mapping out IPR protection strategies.
The report also said “protectionism” is the greatest hurdle facing Taiwanese investors doing business in China.
It also said that while the two sides have different patent laws, China has a lack of experience and methods for handling patent disputes. The Chinese authorities are often inefficient in protecting Taiwanese businesses’ IPR interests, the report said.
The report suggested building an “IPR forum Web site” for Taiwanese businesses operating in China that would serve as a platform for information and opinion exchanges on IPR issues.
The report also suggested discussing the opening of offices in charge of cross-strait IPR disputes on the agenda of the planned fourth round of cross-strait talks between Straits Exchange Foundation Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) and China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林), which is scheduled for later this year.
Another option would be to include in the proposed ECFA guidelines for regular cross-strait exchanges of personnel responsible for patent and trademark review and cross-strait cooperation in fighting counterfeiting, forgery and pirating, the report said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching