Order of the Ministry of Labor
1. Amendment to Article 2 of the Enforcement Rules of Labor Standards Act”
On 27 March 2024, the Ministry of Labor announced the amendment to Article 2 of the Enforcement Rules of the Labor Standards Act so as to align with the name change from Act of Gender Equality in Employment to Gender Equality in Employment Act.
Reported by: David Tsai / Julia Kuo
Intellectual Property
2. Announcement of implementation of the amendments to Trademark Act
On 29 March 2024, the Executive Yuan announced that the amendments to Trademark Act publicized on 24 May 2023 will come into effect as of 1 May 2024. Please refer to Lexgroup Newsletter (Issue No. 416) for the key points of the amendments.
Reported by: Jolene Wang / Alex Miao
Fair Trade
3. Amendments to “Principles of the Fair Trade Commission in Handling Cases of Warning Letters Issued by Enterprise for Violation of Copyrights, Trademarks or Patents”
On 29 March 2024, the Fair Trade Commission amended the “Principles of the Fair Trade Commission in Handling Cases of Warning Letters Issued by Enterprise for Violation of Copyrights, Trademarks or Patents.” We summarize amendments below.
(1) Sending a warning letter in electronic form is included;
(2) In terms of a utility model patent, a technical evaluation report for utility model patent should be submitted in addition to an examination report when sending a warning letter;
(3) Technical evaluation report for a utility model patent is a must when notifying the manufacturer, importer or agent of a possible infringement of copyright, trademark or patent; and
(4) Notwithstanding the foregoing, warning letters shall not restrict competition or involve unfair competition.
Reported by: Kang-Shen Liu / Julia Kuo
Trade
4. Enactment of Disposal Directions for Handling Cases of Commodities for Export Not Marked with Country of Origin as Stipulated or Falsely Marked on Country of Origin
On 29 March 2024, the International Trade Administration of the Ministry of Economic Affairs announced to enact the “Disposal Directions for Handling Cases of Commodities for Export Not Marked with Country of Origin as Stipulated or Falsely Marked on Country of Origin”, which stipulate that for the commodities manufactured in the Republic of China, there shall be no falsely marked country of origin or any information causing misconception of country of origin when export. Additionally, the Disposal Directions set forth relevant handling procedures and other matters.
Reported by: Kang-Shen Liu / Sean Tsai
OFFSHORE FUNDS
5. Amendment to the “Deep Rooting Incentive Plan”
On 3 April 2024, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) announced the amendment to the “Deep Rooting Incentive Plan” and relevant parts in the Q&A of Regulations Governing Offshore Funds. We summarize below:
(1) Where an application is made for a recognition period of two years, different favorable treatments may be applied for the first and second year of the recognition period respectively now.
(2) New evaluation indicators have been added, such as the average asset under management scale (excluding money market funds and exchange-traded funds) in the latest year, and the annual average amount of investment research team members (including fund managers, investment managers, and other investment researchers) over the past three years.
(3) The acceleration of review period for introducing new offshore funds has been amended to the mechanism of “report for effective registration”; the permission of introducing new types of offshore funds has newly included multi-asset offshore funds as one of the permitted new types of offshore funds for favorable treatments as well.
(4) The favorable treatment, which previously allowed a maximum of three funds from the same offshore fund institution per application by the master agent, will now be extended to bundle funds from more than one offshore fund institutions that have also adopted this favorable treatment together in the same application.
Reported by: Jeffrey Liu / Jason Su
Insurance
6. Interpretation for the application of Article 146 of the Insurance Act regarding the utilization of funds by the insurance enterprise
On 9 April 2024, the FSC announced an interpretative ruling of, Subparagraph 8, Paragraph 1, Article 146 of the Insurance Act, replacing the former interpretative ruling. According to the new interpretative ruling, in addition to the requirement of reaching a 200% own funds to risk funds ratio, the threshold for insurance enterprises to invest in real estate trusts beneficiary rights now also includes a requirement that the net worth ratio reaches 3% for at least one of the last two periods.
Reported by: David Tsai / Alex Li
7. Draft Amendments to Regulations Governing Foreign Investments by Insurance Companies
On 15 April 2024, the FSC announced the draft amendment to the Regulations Governing Foreign Investments by Insurance Companies. We summarize below:
(1) To increase the foreign financing channels for the insurers to issue bonds that may strengthen the capital structure.
(2) To amend and loosen the restrictions on the insurers’ investments in foreign currency-denominated privately offered funds raised by the domestic private equity fund management institutions that have obtained the qualification letter issued by the National Development Council.
(3) Without increasing the threshold amount of foreign investments for the insurers to guide the insurers to strengthen the capital structure so as to complete the integration of the TW-ICS system and the accommodation measures of flexible asset allocation for the insurers are added.
Reported by: David Tsai / Sean Tsai
Editors: | Counselors: |
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Mike Lu (Partner) Stacy Lo (Partner) Jeffrey Liu (Partner) Kang-Shen Liu (Partner) David Tsai (Partner) Angela Lin (Partner) Paul Hsu (Partner) | Echo Yeh Sue Su Jolene Wang (Lexcel Partners IP) |