EU/TAIWAN : COMMISSION THREATENS TAIWAN WITH WTO ACTION OVER IPR.

Tech Europe, February, 2008

The EU has threatened Taiwan with World Trade Organisation (WTO) action to defend the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) of the European electronics firm Philips. On 30 January, the European Commission gave the Taiwanese authorities two months to take concrete steps to amend its Patent Law and reverse several compulsory licence decisions against Philips. "I hope that the Taiwanese authorities will move quickly to bring their law and practice into line with WTO rules. I cannot rule out seeking WTO dispute settlement if they do not," said EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson. A Commission report concludes that the Patent Law of Taiwan and certain decisions made under it are inconsistent with WTO rules.

Following a complaint lodged by Philips on 15 January 2007,...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.

Premium Content Partnership | HighBeam Research provides an in-depth online archive library of reference works.