Can a company patent a hairstyle? And will the patent stick? Hairdressers in Taiwan want to know.
They have recently expressed dismay that a leading Japanese cosmetics firm has applied for patent rights on 43 hairstyles. Shiseido submitted the paperwork to Taiwan's Intellectual Property Bureau earlier this year, according to the Central News Agency. In processing the case, the bureau issued a notice stating that those opposing the intellectual property right application could raise concerns. Given Shiseido's clout in the business world, beauty salons were increasingly anxious, threatening that if the bureau did not reject the application, they would call for a large-scale, islandwide protest demonstration and boycott all Shiseido goods. Lee Shang-feng, head of the Kaohsiung Hairdressers Association, said that the patents applied for by Shiseido cover a set of hairstyle examination and evaluation methods and 43 hairstyles, all of which have existed for a long time.
Stay tuned. This story has hair!
Puffing for a worthy cause
Poor smokers. Looks like someone wanted to tease this, one of society's ever-dwindling minority groups. A prankster put it out on the jungle drums that they should start collecting their cigarette packets for a worthy cause -- to help disabled people and help the Tzu Chi Hospital (慈濟醫院) raise money for medical equipment, to be exact. Seems like everyone was talking about the exchange -- it was hot gossip among friends and colleagues, it did the rounds on the Internet and one bank even posted the scheme on its bulletin board. Everyone started collecting -- from university students, bank clerks and volunteer workers to coffee shop waitresses and bowling center attendants. But when the John Tung Foundation (
Read his lips: no taxes!
The Central News Agency put out a funny story the other day about the chairman of the Taiwan Communist Party down in Kaohsiung. The party head says he plans to run in the March 2000 presidential election. His name: Wang Lao-yang (王老養). His game: if elected on March 18 next year, he will abolish all taxes. His chances of winning: slim. His place in Taiwan's history: a very small footnote in very fine print.
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today accepted an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to lead a delegation to China next month, saying she hopes to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and bring stability to the Taiwan Strait. “I am grateful and happy to accept this invitation,” Cheng said in a statement from the KMT chairperson’s office. Cheng said she hopes both sides can work together to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, enhance exchange and cooperation, bring stability to the Taiwan Strait and improve people’s livelihoods. At today's news conference, Cheng said any efforts to
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
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