The draft of the revised Trademark Law was first announced by the Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) in 2008 after the current Trademark Law came into force on November 28, 2003. After that announcement, there have been six public hearings and six consultation discussions. The draft was sent to the Legislative Yuan in January 2011 after the Executive Yuan confirmed the contents of the draft. The first reading was conducted and finished on May 9, 2011. As hoped, the Legislative Yuan accelerated its reading procedures to complete the passage within one month. The final context will be forwarded to President for signature and proclamation to become affective.

Highlights of the new provisions include:

1. Specifying various kinds of use so as to determine if such use constitutes an infringing behavior.
2. Accepting new subject matters as a trademark, such as motions and holograms.
3. Abolishing the second installment to pay the registration fee to result in a single payment.
4. Rendering a Letter of Consent is not necessarily accepted if the Authority deems it obviously inappropriate or unfair in the relevant case.
5. Accepting reinstatement in the case of paying registration fee if good cause for previous failure to pay can be proved.
6. Specifying the ultimate opportunity to grant division or partial deletion of the specification of goods/services of the pending application or registration.
7. Requiring evidence of actual use when the registrant files an invalidation or revocation action against a third party if the base mark has been registered for more than three years.
8. Deleting the minimum damage claimed by items of goods sold or forfeited.
9. Strengthening the protection of well-known marks from dilution whereby likelihood of confusion will be sufficient to determine an infringing behavior.
10. Specifying relevant protections for geographical indication of origin.
11. Specifying relevant regulations regarding bordering measures.

Detailed information of the revised regulations will be provided after the President’s proclamation.