TIPO "Quarterly Report on Taiwan's Intellectual Property Rights Protection"

According to a report by the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office, "Taiwan remains on the Priority Watch List and is subject to out-of-cycle review, despite the praises Taiwan received from the United States on our efforts in effective raids against night markets and inspections of optical media factories that have significantly reduced the number of retail sale for pirated optical media products. USTR also mentioned in the same report that Taiwan’s "2002 IPR Action Year" has been extended to 2005 and has moved to strengthen enforcement, particularly, against pirated optical media.

"The decision to place Taiwan on the Priority Watch List does not fully acknowledge our endeavors and comes as a disappointment to our people and our enforcement authorities. Nonetheless, IP protection is one of our crucial national development policies and our obligation to world economy. We will beef up enforcement momentum and continue refining legal framework. According to the April 9, 2004 report released by IIPA, Taiwan’s software piracy rate dropped to 41% in 2003, which is the biggest improvement among all nations and is ranked second after Japan in Asia. Also, Taiwan’s records and music piracy rate dropped from 47% in 2002 to 42% in 2003. These figures show that the new Copyright Act and its stipulations for public crime have produced deterrent effects.

"Additional efforts have been made to strengthen IP legal and enforcement mechanisms. These include the enactment of the new Patent Act on July 1 and pushing the institutionalization of the Integrated Enforcement Task Force (IETF). . . ."