Intellectual property officials were urged at a press conference yesterday to revoke the taike (
The taike trademark became a debated issue when concert promoter Bring Seven in One (七色一味) was forced to change the name of a music party last Saturday in Hualien from "Tai Ke Rock Concert" to "East Coast Rock Concert."
"It's sad that local artists can't use the term taike anymore," Kuo Chi-chou (
derogatory
Taike, originally a derogatory term used by Chinese who fled to Taiwan with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in 1949 to describe Taiwanese, was redefined in recent years as an expression of strong national consciousness and Taiwanese cultural elements.
Lin said that taike should be regarded as a kind of "public good" or "cultural good" and no one should be allowed to monopolize the usage of the term.
"Making taike a registered trademark is detrimental to popular culture," Lin said.
She said that members of the public might face an infringement lawsuit if they used the term in symposiums, music competitions, or film festivals or in the names of their published books or magazines, among other things.
Hung Shu-ming (洪淑敏), the head of the trademark division at the Intellectual Property Office (IPO), did not think it improper that the bureau had granted Neuron Innovations the trademark.
"The application for taike registration was approved because Neuron Innovations has a leading position in hosting taike Rock concerts in recent years," Hung said.
Lin responded by saying that "first come, first served" was not a good reason for Neuron Innovations to get the trademark, as LTK (濁水溪公社), a local band which released an album titled Revenge of the Taike ten years ago, would have owned the trademark.
Lee Ming-tsung (
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry