The trademark “Seediq Bale,” registered by a movie director for a film he made with the same title, will be invalidated as a result of opposition by the Sediq, the nation’s 14th officially recognized Aboriginal tribe, the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) said yesterday.
Wei Te-sheng (魏德聖), known for his 2008 hit movie Cape No. 7 (海角七號), which enjoyed the second-biggest box office success in Taiwan’s cinematic history after Titanic, has had his latest film registered with the government as a trademark and subject to promotional tie-ins aimed at advertising the major four-hour production, which cost at least NT$600 million (US$19 million) to make.
The film — an ambitious dramatization of the Wushe Incident, in which a Sediq hero led a rebellion against Japanese military forces in the 1930s during the Japanese colonial period in what is today’s Renai Township (仁愛) in Nantou County — features a 15,000-strong cast and was produced by a 400-member production crew from Taiwan, Japan and South Korea.
The IPO said it was working on nullifying the Seediq Bale trademark after consultations with the Council for Indigenous Peoples on the issue.
IPO officials said they agreed with council officials that “Seediq Bale” has deep cultural significance for the Sediq and that it represents an important agent for ethic identification and a call for historical awareness.
The office added that another trademark application case for the Seediq Bale name filed by the Farmers’ Association of Sinyi Township (信義) in Nantou County will also be rejected.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Kung Wen-chi (孔文吉), who represents Aboriginal constituents, said the IPO should review the trademark-granting operations that led it to approve “Seediq Bale” as a trademark in the first place.
Walis Pelin, an Aborigine and former head of the Council for Indigenous Peoples, joined a group of Sediq from Renai Township led by tribal leader Wumin Sabu on Wednesday to protest against Wei’s movie company, as well as the IPO, for the trademark fiasco.
The protesters demanded that Wei apologize to the Sediq and withdraw his trademark registration.
Walis Pelin said he was personally informed by Wei that the director “is willing to yield the trademark title” to show his respect for the Sediq.
The protesters, however, took offense at the term “yield,” arguing that the phrase Seediq Bale — meaning “a real man” in the Sediq language — is a common asset that belongs to all Sediq in the country and not something that anyone outside the tribe has the right to “yield.”
“The word Seediq is not a commercial product. If Wei was culturally inspired rather than just a businessman, he would know how to respect an ethnic group and its name,” Wumin Sabu said.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard