Taiwan’s Patent Act was amended in January 2014 to add new border protection provisions. According to the new provisions, a patent right holder may request detention of goods suspected of infringing his patent rights by depositing a bond.
The new provisions allow a patent right holder to request Customs to detain suspected goods by presenting facts of infringement in writing and depositing a bond equivalent to the Customs value of the suspected goods. If the request is accepted by Customs, Customs will detain the suspected goods and notify the concerned parties in writing, and will allow the parties to examine the suspected goods without, however, breaching the protection of confidential information of the goods.
The new provisions also allow for the repeal of the grant of the detention request by Customs under the following circumstances: (1) If the party filing the detention request fails to file an infringement lawsuit within twelve days after filing of the request; (2) if the lawsuit is finally dismissed; (3) if the request is voluntarily withdrawn; or (4) if the owner of the suspected goods provides a double counter bond. The party filing the detention request will be liable for warehousing, loading/unloading and other costs associated with the detention if the repeal is attributed thereto.
If infringement is found by the court, the patent right holder may claim damages from the infringer who shall also be responsible for all the costs associated with the detention. In case of non-infringement, the party requesting detention shall pay for any loss or damage sustained by the other party due to the detention.
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The above contents are intended as general discussion of the subject matter only and shall not be deemed as legal advice to any particular case or issue.