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Labor
1. Employment Facilitation Act for Middle-Agers and Elders
The Employment Facilitation Act for Middle-Agers and Elders was enacted or 4 December 2019, which will be enforced on 1 May 2020. We summarize below:
(1) An employer shall provide a friendly environment for employment of middle-agers and elders. (Article 5)
(2) The central competent authority shall conduct investigation and research on employment conditions and service needs and stipulate employment plan for middle-agers and elders. (Articles 6 and 7)
(3) An employer is prohibited from having direct or indirect unfavorable treatment to job applicants or employees due to the age. In the case of violation, the employer shall be subject to an administrative fine from NTD300,000 to NTD1.5 million. The burden of proof shall be on the employer (Articles 12 to 14 and 41)
(4) The competent authority may provide subsidy to an employer who hires a certain ratio of middle-agers or elders for a period. (Articles 21 and 22)
(5) To enhance to reutilize the retired human resource, the competent authority shall build a retired talent database and keep it updated on a periodic basis. (Article 32)
(6) In order to assist employment or reemployment of middle-agers and elders, the public employment service agency shall develop appropriate employment opportunities and post it on the relevant website of the Ministry of Labor or a periodic basis. (Article 32)
Reported by: David Tsai / Naiju Kuan
Company Act
2. Ruling regarding shareholders' meetings
On 30 January 2020, the Ministry of Economic Affairs issued a ruling that where holding period and number of shares held by a shareholder as recorded in the shareholders' roster as of commencement of a black-out period do not meet the requirements for a shareholder to call an extraordinary general meeting (EGM), such shareholder shall not be entitled to calling an EGM. If a company refuses to update the shareholder' roster to reflect the share transfer, such dispute shall be solved through judicial proceedings. According to the Supreme Court's precedent, any resolution by a shareholders' meeting called by a person without the right to call the meeting shall be void, while any specific case shall be reviewed and determined by the court. A shareholder entitled to call an EGM according to the Company Act is permitted to handle matters related to the calling of EGM, such as printing and collection of proxy under Article 177 of the Company Act.
Reported by: Mike Lu / Angela Lin
Intellectual Property
3. Draft Amendment to Patent Act
On 30 January 2020, the Taiwan intellectual Property Office (TIPO) announced a draft amendment to the Patent Act concerning Article 60-1 which is newly added to cope with the Patent Linkage System provided in the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act.
The Patent Linkage System already took effect as of 20 August 2019. To ensure the relevant operation, the newly added Article 60-1provides that a patentee of new drug patent(s) may file a patent infringement suit against a prospective generic drug company during the application for approval of the generic drug where the generic drug company declares that none of the new drug patent(s) is infringed upon or the concerned new drug patent(s) is invalid; and if a patent infringement suit is not filed, the generic drug company may otherwise file a declaratory judgment to confirm non-infringement.
The newly added Article 60-1 was originally proposed in 2016 as part of the draft amendments to Patent Act to comply with the relevant requirements under the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP). Because the United States then withdrew from the TPP and the renamed agreement, Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) entered into force in December 2018, it is necessary to amend the Patent Ac for the preparation for joining CPTPP.
Reported by: Jolene Wang / Linda Cheng
4. Draft Amendment to Copyright Act
On 30 January 2020, TIPO announced two draft amendment to Copyright Act, as summarized below:
(1) Amendments to be made to cope with CPTPP:
To be in line with the policy to join CPTPP, the Copyright Act is to be amended by changing the infringement of illegal reproduction, distribution and public transmission of digital works to be an indictable offence if the damage caused is NTD1,000,000 or more.
(2) Amendments to be made due to the development of technologies:
(a) To amend the definitions of the terms "public broadcast," "public transmission," "public performance," "public presentation," and "public release," and to add the "right of republication".
(b) To allow more flexibility for determined by employers and employees, or contractors and contractees, to determine the ownership of works.
(c) To exclude the right of a performer to publicly release.
(d) The restrictions of copyright property for the use for governmental legislative or executive purposes, judicial and administrative procedures, education, the public juristic person's works, citation, for non-profit purpose or for the reporting of current news or events are to be more appropriately adjusted. The fair use of works in long-distance education and digital archives in national libraries is to be added.
(e) In order to solve the problems on the difficulty in proving damage, it is provided that the infringed person may choose to calculate the damage based on the received royalty, or to request the court to determine a compensation based on the circumstances of the infringement.
(f) Inappropriate criminal liabilities are to be adjusted. For example, the statutory minimum imprisonment term of 6 months for some copyright infringements is deleted. Unauthorized distribution of an original work is decriminalized. The penalization for the infringement actions of intentional public display or possession of works for the distribution purpose is to be provided. In addition, criminal punishment against illegal distribution of genuine works through parallel imports is abolished; instead, civil liability applies. .
Reported by: Jolene Wang / Bella Chiu
5. Reinstatement for Delay in Statutory Period in Patent or Trademark Proceedings Due to Epidemic of COVID-19
TIPO announced on 31 January 2020 that a patent or trademark application is subject to delay in a statutory period in application or proceeding due to the epidemic of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Mainland China, said applicant may file a request for reinstatement along with evidence pursuant to Article 17 of Patent Act and Article 12 of the Implementing Regulations thereof, or Article 8 of Trademark Act and Article 9 of the Implementing Regulations thereof. TIPO will, in principle, consider the specific circumstances of the case to make a determination leniently.
Reported by: Jolene Wang / Huaili Lu
Securities
6. Taipei Exchange Announced Relevant Regulations to Cope with Opening of Securities Dealers to Operate Trading of Virtual Currency with Nature of Securities
On 20 January 2020, to cope with the opening of securities dealers to operate trading of virtual currency with Nature of Securities (Virtual Currency) and Regulations Governing Securities Firms as well as relevant rules, the Taipei Exchange announced the "Regulations Governing Securities Dealers to Operate Trading of Virtual Currency with Nature of Securities", the "Regulations Governing Information of Virtual Currency with Nature of Securities Traded on an OTC Market to be Published Prospectuses", the "Template of Internal Control System of Securities Firm" of Virtual Currency and relevant internal audit implementation rules, the " Education Training Rules of Business Personnel who Operates Trading of Virtual Currency with Nature of Securities" and the "Principles Regulations for the Evaluation Report issued by the Accountant on the Information System and Security Control Operations", and amended the "Standards Governing the Places of Business and Facilities of Securities Firms and Securities Introducing Brokers" accordingly.
Reported by: Jeffrey Liu / Eliza Lee
7. Amendment to Regulations Governing Securities Firms
On 3 February 2020, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) announced the amendment to Regulations Governing Securities Firms. We summarize below:
(1) Where a securities firm conducts hedging operation for the exchange-traded note (ETN), it can be exempted from the restriction that the total amount of its investment cost of holding equity securities issued by affiliated parties shall not exceed 10% of its net assets.
(2) A securities dealer may trade foreign securities and engage in foreign derivative financial product transactions with its overseas affiliated enterprises, subject to certain restrictions on outstanding amounts of transactions, under either condition below:
(a) Approval by a special resolution of the board (adopted by a three-fourths vote of a board meeting attended by two-thirds or more of all the directors); or
(b) Subject to certain conditions, a general authorization is granted by the above board resolution to the management department to handle in accordance with the internal operation rules.
Reported by: Jeffrey Liu / Lily Huang
8. Ruling related to Article 31-3 of Regulations Governing Securities Firms
On 5 February 2020, the FSC announced a ruling to specify the terms "the objective traded or transacted has public market price", or "the trading or transaction amount is not significant" as set forth in Article 31-3 of the Regulations Governing Securities Firms. For example, "the objective traded or transacted has public market price" shall refer to, among others, government bonds, corporate bonds, and financial debentures without the nature of equities, which have listed or public market price. As for "the trading or transaction amount is not significant", it shall refer to, among others, a single transaction with the amount no more than NTD5 million.
Reported by: Jeffery Liu / Doris Huang
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2020-02-21
