Seminar on Current Status of Contributory Patent Infringement in Taiwan

Only July 15, Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) held a seminar to discuss contributory patent infringement and whether to enact specific provisions in Taiwan’s Patent Law on this issue. Taiwan dose not yet have any specific provisions in its Patent Law that regulate what is considered as contributory patent infringement in various other countries and must rely upon traditional tort theory (i.e. the theory of joint tortfeasor) available under Taiwan’s Civil Code. However, it is much more difficult to develop a body of law under the civil law system (as such Taiwan) than in a common law system (as such as the United States), and as a result, the tort theory as available under the Civil Code is less clear and not well-defined as it applies to patents, which is an area of law relatively new. Hence, some have called for formal legislation of the contributory patent infringement theory.