The following amendments to the Taiwanese trademark Act has been announced by the authorities. The effective date is however still to be set by a further order.
Any distinctive identification may be registered as a trademark, including inter alia three dimensional laser tags and the boot screen of a mobile phone.
Exclusive trademark licenses and non exclusive licenses are clearly differentiated. The holder of an exclusive license has the right, within the scope of the license, to prevent others (including the trademark owner) to use the trademark, to sublicense the trademark and to initiate proceedings against infringements in its own name. The above cannot be done by the holder of a non exclusive license without the consent of the trademark owner.
The provisions for a deemed trademark infringement has been amended as follows:
Acts typically constituting use of the trademark has been specified as follows:
The above indicates that the Taiwanese authorities want to broaden the scope of possible trademarks and clarify some issues that previously might have been ambiguous.
Peter Hermansson, Attorney at Law