The Importance of Civil Infringement Actions in Taiwan

According to an October 5, 2004 article by John Eastwood and Eve Chen, "The filing of a Taiwanese civil action that is supplementary to a criminal infringement case can be extraordinarily useful for providing

1. early access to the full police, prosecutor and court files;
2. greater involvement in the criminal hearings, which can help with regards to getting higher penalties and with laying the foundation for later civil liability; and
3. avoidance of the usual one-percent-of-claim fees charged for purely civil actions.

Access to the files and greater participation can be key factors in getting good criminal results because the rights holders? counsel often comes armed with a greater grasp of the individual case facts and relevant IP law than many judges and prosecutors, who may be under heavy docket pressures or have little experience handling IP cases."