Intellectual Property

 

1.     Removal of Early Laid-Open Requirement for Accelerated Examination Program (AEP), Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) and TW-Support Using the PPH Agreement (TW-SUPA)

 

Under the current procedures, the applicant, when requesting AEP, PPH and TW-SUPA for an invention application which has not been laid open, should also file a petition for an early laid-open with payment of the official fee of NT$1,000.

 

On March 21, 2016, the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office announced that this early laid-open requirement is to be removed. As of April 1, 2016, to request AEP, PPH and TW-SUPA for an invention application, if the application has not been laid open, the applicant is no longer required to file a petition for an early laid-open, which not only makes the applicant exempt from the official fee for said early laid-open but also promotes the use of various types of accelerated examination programs.

 

Reported by: Jolene Wang / Linda Cheng

 

Food and Drug Administration

 

2.     Draft Regulations Governing the Labeling of Packaged Fluoridated Edible Salt Products

 

On March 25, 2016, the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) announced for public consultation the draft “Regulations Governing the Labeling of Packaged Fluoridated Edible Salt Products”, which is scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2016.  We summarize the key points below:

 

(1)   The product name of packaged edible salt with either potassium fluoride or sodium fluoride added must be labeled “fluoride salt”, “fluoride-containing salt” or “fluoridated salt”.

 

(2)   Packaged fluoridated edible salt products must be labeled with the following warnings: “consult a dentist before combined use of fluoridated salt and sodium fluoride tablets” and “for home use only”. The above mentioned warnings must have a conspicuous font color and a font size of no less than 4 millimeter (mm) in both length and width. In addition, such salt products must be labeled with nutrition facts showing the total fluoride content

 

(3)   The labeling of “can benefit tooth health” on packaged fluoridated edible salt products is allowable.

 

Reported by: Jolene Wang / Crick Liang

 

3.     Draft Amendment to Schedules I and II of Standards for Determination of Exaggerated, Misleading or Medical-Effect-Describing Food Labeling, Propaganda or Advertising Languages

 

The MOHW announced on March 28, 2016, the draft amendment to Schedules I and II of the “Standards for Determination of Exaggerated, Misleading or Medical-Effect-Describing Food Labeling, Propaganda or Advertising Languages”, summarized below: 

 

(1)   Adding allowable descriptions for physiological functions of nutrients, shown as the following exemplified wordings: (i) for proteins: “main constituent material of cells, tissues and organs of human body”, “promote growth and development”, and “help tissue repair”; (ii) for zinc (Zn): “help the protein synthesis of skin tissues”; and (iii) for chromium (Cr): “help maintain the normal metabolism of carbohydrates”, with a minimum daily intake of 6 micrograms (μg).

 

(2)   It is annotated that as a premise to use the allowable descriptions for physiological functions of nutrients set forth in present Schedule I and II, the labeled “content” of nutrients must comply with the “Binding Matters for Nutritional Claim of Packaged Foods” and the “Binding Matters for Nutrition Facts Labeling of Packaged Tablet of Capsule Food Products Containing Vitamins or Minerals”. Otherwise, the labeled “amount of minimum daily intake” must be no lower than that set forth in the present Schedule I.

 

Reported by: Jolene Wang / Crick Liang

 

Procurement

 

4.     Ruling Related to the Government Procurement Act

 

On March 23, 2016, the Public Construction Commission, Executive Yuan, issued a ruling to explain the following procedure of review decisions for complaints. Where the procurement violates acts or regulations and is revoked by the Complaint Review Board for Government Procurement (Board), the procuring agency shall proceed with a lawful alternative according to Article 85 of Government Procurement Act (GPA). Under this circumstance, Paragraph 2, Article 75 of the GPA shall apply mutatis mutandis. That is, the procuring agency shall re-make another disposition within 15 days following the next day of its receipt of the decision from the Board and notify the same in writing to the supplier tendering the complaint.

 

Report by: Kang-Shen Liu / Judy Tai

 

Finance

 

5.     Article 43 of the Financial Holding Company Act

 

The Financial Supervisory Commission issued a ruling on March 23, 2016, to explain the application of the Financial Holding Company Act in connection with institutional clients' information. Generally, subsidiaries of a financial holding company may freely search and use institutional clients' public information. However, if the client list is chosen based on transactions between the institutional client and other subsidiaries, such institutional clients' basic information contains the judgment of the financial holding company's subsidiary on the institutional clients' information, which is different from the public information available on the website of the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Such information-sharing shall follow the relevant requirements under cross-selling regulations.

 

Reported by: Stacy Lo / Angela Lin

Editors:

Mike Lu (Partner)

Stacy Lo (Partner)

Jeffrey Liu (Partner)

Kang-Shen Liu (Partner)

David Tsai (Partner)

Counselors:

Echo Yeh

Sue Su

Shih-Jung Lee

Jolene Wang (Lexcel Partners IP)