09.04.2023
Taiwan Supreme Court Announced New Rules in Calculating the Litigation Fee
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According to Taiwan Code of Civil Procedure, a plaintiff shall pay the litigation fee before commencing a civil suit. However, the losing party should bear the litigation fee once the judgment is made. In the first instance, the litigation fee is about 1.1% of the amount (or the monetary value) of the claim and 1.65% for each of the second and third instance.
In infringement cases involving IP rights, the plaintiff often demands compensation of damages and preclusion/prevention of further infringement in their claims. Although it is simple to calculate the litigation fee according to the amount of damages, it is difficult to identify or calculate the value of preclusion/prevention of further infringement. Therefore, in an IP law symposium held by the Judicial Yuan on June 22, 2009, the conclusion was made as: “When the plaintiff demands preclusion/prevention of infringement, since the monetary value of such claims cannot be calculated, the value of the claim shall be fixed as N.T.$1,650,000 (equal to U.S.$56,000, and the exchange rate between USD and TWD is about 29.5:1). This amount is derived from the minimum amount allowable to appeal from the judgment of second instance and plus 10% (N.T.$1,500,000+150,000) according to Paragraph 12, Article 77 of Taiwan Code of Civil Procedure. In execution of the above IP law symposium, various levels of courts reached a consensus in their practice that they would not accumulate the amount of damages suffered and the value of preclusion/prevention of further infringement in calculating the value of the claim. In such circumstances, only a plaintiff’s primary claims are used for calculation of the litigation fee, and are calculated by the subject which has greater value.
However, the Supreme Court passed two resolutions on March 12 and 19 of 2013, elaborating that the monetary value of the claims for compensation of damages and preclusion/prevention of further infringement shall be accumulated when calculating the litigation fee. In addition, the court may not hold the amount and monetary value of such claims as not calculable without conducting necessary investigation to discover the value for preclusion/prevention of further infringement.
The aforementioned resolutions by the Supreme Court therefore have changed the previous practice of the courts on calculation of litigation fee. The new rules may extend the time of trial since the court will take time to investigate the value of the claim for preclusion/prevention of further infringement and both parties may argue over this subject. Furthermore, the litigation fee paid by the plaintiff when commencing the suit would rise since the amount of claims shall be accumulated in calculating the litigation fee.
In infringement cases involving IP rights, the plaintiff often demands compensation of damages and preclusion/prevention of further infringement in their claims. Although it is simple to calculate the litigation fee according to the amount of damages, it is difficult to identify or calculate the value of preclusion/prevention of further infringement. Therefore, in an IP law symposium held by the Judicial Yuan on June 22, 2009, the conclusion was made as: “When the plaintiff demands preclusion/prevention of infringement, since the monetary value of such claims cannot be calculated, the value of the claim shall be fixed as N.T.$1,650,000 (equal to U.S.$56,000, and the exchange rate between USD and TWD is about 29.5:1). This amount is derived from the minimum amount allowable to appeal from the judgment of second instance and plus 10% (N.T.$1,500,000+150,000) according to Paragraph 12, Article 77 of Taiwan Code of Civil Procedure. In execution of the above IP law symposium, various levels of courts reached a consensus in their practice that they would not accumulate the amount of damages suffered and the value of preclusion/prevention of further infringement in calculating the value of the claim. In such circumstances, only a plaintiff’s primary claims are used for calculation of the litigation fee, and are calculated by the subject which has greater value.
However, the Supreme Court passed two resolutions on March 12 and 19 of 2013, elaborating that the monetary value of the claims for compensation of damages and preclusion/prevention of further infringement shall be accumulated when calculating the litigation fee. In addition, the court may not hold the amount and monetary value of such claims as not calculable without conducting necessary investigation to discover the value for preclusion/prevention of further infringement.
The aforementioned resolutions by the Supreme Court therefore have changed the previous practice of the courts on calculation of litigation fee. The new rules may extend the time of trial since the court will take time to investigate the value of the claim for preclusion/prevention of further infringement and both parties may argue over this subject. Furthermore, the litigation fee paid by the plaintiff when commencing the suit would rise since the amount of claims shall be accumulated in calculating the litigation fee.
