June 2023
Jane Tsai and Tina Lee
Since the Amendments to the Intellectual Property Case Adjudication Act, which were promulgated via the Presidential Decree of February 15, 2023,[1] switch to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Intellectual Property and Commercial Court over first-instance criminal cases related to trade secrets, which were previously tried by local courts, the Intellectual Property and Commercial Court Organization Act (hereinafter, the “Act”) was amended accordingly and promulgated by the Presidential Decree of April 26 of the same year. These Amendments are highlighted below:
I. First-instance criminal cases involving trade secrets are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Intellectual Property and Commercial Court (Article 3, Paragraph 1, Subparagraph 2 of the Act)
1. To achieve the goal of professional adjudication, expedite trials and decisions, and ensure the international competitive advantage of industries, the first-instance criminal cases (including ancillary civil lawsuits) involving offenses under Article 13-1, Article 13-2, Article 13-3, Paragraph 3, and Article 13-4 of the Trade Secrets Act are switched to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Intellectual Property and Commercial Court. However, it should be noted that compulsory dispositions during the investigation of the cases should still be handled by the respective local courts for reasons of timeliness and convenience (Article 54, Paragraph 4 of the Intellectual Property Case Adjudication Act).
2. In addition, to accommodate Article 18, Paragraph 2 of the National Security Act as amended and promulgated on June 8, 2022, the exclusive jurisdiction of the Intellectual Property and Commercial Court also applies to first-instance criminal cases involving acts of infringing the state’s trade secrets that are core key technologies under Article 8, Paragraph 1 to Paragraph 3 of the act.
II. The single-judge adjudication type is added (Article 6, Paragraph 1 of the Act).
The Amendments add single-judge adjudication, which applies to the following cases without the need for collegiate panel trials:
1. Summary trial, summary procedure, or bargaining process applies to first-instance criminal cases involving offenses under Article 13-1, Article 13-2, Article 13-3, Paragraph 3, and Article 13-4 of the Trade Secrets Act.
2. Summary trial, summary procedure, or bargaining process applies to cases that involve the same offenses as those in the cases set forth in the preceding paragraph or that are prosecuted or consolidated for prosecution due to their connections under Article 7 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
3. The preceding two paragraphs apply to ancillary civil lawsuits of cases to which a summary procedure applies.
[1] For a comprehensive introduction of the Intellectual Property Case Adjudication Act promulgated by the President on February 15, 2023, please refer to the new legal knowledge article published by Lee, Tsai & Partners in August 2022 and titled Taiwan Executive Yuan Approves the Draft Amendments to the “Intellectual Property Case Adjudication Act”; the new legal knowledge article published by Lee, Tsai & Partners in March 2023 and titled Promulgation of the Amendments to the Intellectual Property Case Adjudication Act by the Presidential Decree (Taiwan)
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