On May 20, 2014, the Taiwan Legislative Yuan passed the amendment on Intellectual Property Case Adjudication Act (hereinafter referred to as “the Act”) to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights. Such amendment has become effective since June 6, 2014. Highlights of this latest amendment are summarized as follows:

1. To broaden the range of duties performed by the Technical Examination Officers: The latest amendment allows the Technical Examination Officers to provide their professional opinions in proceedings of preservation of evidence, provisional remedies and compulsory execution.

2. An accused infringer is demanded to take an obligation of giving substantive defense in a trade secret infringement lawsuit: According to Article 10.1 of the Act, which provides that when a party (“the complainant”), in a trade secret infringement lawsuit, has sufficiently presented the matter of fact regarding his/her claim for trade secret infringement, and the other party (“the accused infringer”) has simply denied such claim, the court shall demand the latter to give substantive reasons and suitable arguments. Where the accused infringer disobeys such demand without giving a justifiable reason, the court may, in its discretion, take as the truth the complainant’s allegation with regard to his/her claim for trade secret infringement.

3. To enhance the credibility of judgment and unify the legal opinion for civil intellectual property cases: An appeal against a first-instance judgment/ruling regarding civil intellectual property case must be filed with the Intellectual Property Court.