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

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, the Commission denounced Taipei's decision to grant so called compulsory licences' (i.e. licences granted by the authorities without the consent of the patent owner) to a local producer of CD-R, called Gigastorage, allowing it to use licences owned by the European firm for free. On 24 July 2004 the Taiwanese Intellectual Property Office granted compulsory licences to Gigastorage for five patents related to CD-R technology owned by Philips. The Dutch firm is currently seeking the annulment of these decisions before the Taipei High Administrative Court which is expected to give its opinion in the middle of 2008. Philips had agreed licences with eight Taiwanese companies producing CD-R but had terminated its contract with Gigastorage in April 2001 because of contractual disputes (including failure to pay royalties). Gigastorage then...