Officials yesterday said the government was doing its best to protect intellectual property rights (IPR) after Taiwan was sharply criticized by the US for failing to make a bigger dent in the piracy of videos and software despite new anti-piracy laws passed last year.
In its report last year on America's trade disputes worldwide, the US Trade Representative (USTR) office cited US industry estimates that Taiwan's weak IPR protection cost American firms US$333 million last year.
PHOTO: REUTERS
IPR protection "continues to be a problem between the US and Taiwan due to weaknesses in Taiwan's legal framework and law enforcement," the report said.
"Continued production of pirated optical media, failure to shut down counterfeit and IPR-infringing facilities, and the export of pirated and counterfeit goods overseas remains a major concern for the United States," the USTR said in the report, the "2002 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers."
The US report listed a wide range of areas in which Washington is dissatisfied with Taiwan's anti-piracy performance, even in the wake of reforms taken last year in advance of Taiwan's accession into the WTO, which it attained on Jan. 1.
Steve Chen (
The report appears to make it unlikely that Taiwan will be removed soon from the USTR's so-called "special 301 watch list," a list of countries that deserve special scrutiny on IPR matters and which, if the situation deteriorates, could result in US trade sanctions against Taiwan.
Taiwan has been on the watch list several times in recent years, and was placed on the priority watch list in April 2001. The list falls under Section 301 of US trade laws, thus the name.
However, Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Yi-fu (
Taiwanese authorities have seized over NT$2.2 billion worth of counterfeits so far this year, more than double from the same period last year.
In another area, the report had good words to say about President Chen Shui-bian's (
Nevertheless, the report notes that Chen's efforts have not yet resulted in changes in the overall system and that corruption "has been a source of complaints by US business people."
Graft is most pervasive in the areas of environmental and waste management, public advertising and government procurement, particularly in local-level construction projects, the report says.
On IPR, the report cited last October's amendment to the Patent Law to boost patent protection, but noted that the law also de-criminalized invention patent infringement.
The Copyright Law amendment, also passed in October, extends the same protection to computer programs as literary works, but later additional amendments covering the Internet may not adequately protect IPR, the report said.
Despite the passage in October of an optical disc law that required manufacturing licenses and jail terms for violators, "Taiwan's optical disc piracy situation remains a major concern of the United States," the USTR says. "Once full implementation of Taiwan's optical disc legislation takes effect in May 2002, we look to Taiwan to reduce its continued high incidence of IPR piracy," it says.
The report also expressed concern over the use of unauthorized software in government agencies and large businesses and the judiciary's difficulty in handling piracy cases, which has resulted in long delays in court cases. It also said that "conflicting and unclear lines of bureaucratic apparatus stymie IPR enforcement efforts," and that penalties are inadequate.
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