On December 30th, 2016, the Legislative Yuan had passed an amendment to the section on Patent Act. This amendment will make a more lenient requirement for the grace period and will facilitate the dissemination of innovative technologies. The amended provisions were promulgated on January 18th, 2017 by Presidential Order; the date of its implementation will later be decided by the Executive Yuan..

This amendment to Patent Act covers three major revisions.

First, this amendment extends the grace period from 6 months to 12 months and sets out a more lenient requirement to disclosures made by applicants. In view of the commercial or academic activities of our enterprises and academic institutions, the invention is disclosed in a pluralistic form before the invention is filed and the patent right is still available for the protection of the invention. Refer to the provisions of Article 102 (b) of the United States Patent Law, Article 30 of the Japanese Patent Law and Article 30 of the Korean Patent Law, which will amend the current grace period to 6 months as 12 months, and easing forms of disclosure, delete the provisions of the existing paragraph, does not limit the applicant to disclose the state of the invention to encourage the disclosure and circulation of technology. After revision, it is no longer mandatory to claim grace period on the date of filing of the application in response to the public’s request. The new provisions on the grace period would apply when disclosures are made either intentionally or unintentionally by an applicant, in order to further promoting the publication and dissemination of technologies.

Second, publication in the Patent Gazette does not apply during the grace period. Applicant's patented technical content is found in the patent application filed with our country or foreign country. The patent application is published by the Patent Gazette, the disclosure is due to the patent application by the applicant or the patent special authorities after the applicant to apply for it. The purpose of the publication in the Patent Gazette is made with the aim to avoid duplication of investment in the same R&D project, or to make known to the public the exact scope of claims of granted patents. Besides, the grace period is set out to ensure that inventions do not fail the novelty and inventive step tests due to exceptional disclosures made prior to their applications. The two measures are obviously different from each other in terms of their scopes and purposes. As such, provisions regarding the grace period would not apply in the event of publication made in the Patent Gazette. The disclosure shall not be used as a prior art if the publication of the Patent Gazette is in the form of a disclaimer of a patent application filed without the consent of the applicant after the disclosure of the applicant's knowledge, either directly or indirectly. For the publication in a gazette made in this country or a foreign country in accordance with the laws as the consequence of filing a patent application and made by the applicant’s will, the preceding paragraph is not applicable.

On June 14th, 2017, Legislative Yuan had passed the amendment of Fundamental Science and Technology Act. The new amendment had gave the executing research and development units more right to trade the stock from royalty of IP ownership or licensing for use, and are not subject to the National Property Act. Public schools, public institutions or public utilities are free to dispose of stocks at the most favorable point so that they can increase the use of government subsidies R&D results.

Otherwise, new rules eliminate the limit of recruiting scientific and technological personnel. Research personnel in public schools at the junior college level and above or public research institutions (organizations) who, due to scientific research needs, must use technology as investment capital or hold concurrent jobs, shall not be subject to Article 34 of the Act of Governing the Appointment of Educators; Article 13, Paragraph 1 of the Civil Servants Work Act, which limits running a business and the total shares held in a business to 10%; or Article 13, Paragraph 2 and Article 14 of the Civil Servants Work Act, which restrict research personnel from holding other positions concurrently. In other words, Teachers who are concurrently employed by public research institutions are allowed to act as directors of the new company if they are "civil servants" in administrative posts of school. It will affect the recruiting scientific and technological personnel to ensure more scientific and technological personnel who could put into innovation business. Besides, the new revised rule had a certain percentage of budgets from national science and technology development fund to promote popular science. It will increase ours nations’ the general science and technology knowledge.

The Ministry of Science and Technology had prepared the relevant supporting measures, scheduled to make regulations within 3 months. The future of our scientific knowledge popularization will have a stronger basis with the legal support to do more effectively to promote science and technology policy.

The Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) reported to Premier Lin-Chuan on June 18, 2017. MOST said that as of the end of 2016, 108 biomedical industry firms were listed companies, with an aggregate market capitalization of NT$976.1 billion (US$30.2 billion). Total business revenues for those companies in 2016 was NT$186.4 billion (US$5.77 billion), up 21 percent from 2015, with eight firms generating revenues of NT$5 billion (US$154.7 million) or more, and two firms with revenues of NT$10 billion (US$309.4 million) or more.

MOST also said that biomedical industry promotional efforts are designed to establish the strategic center of the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. Research and development efforts are expected to yield 10 new pharmaceuticals and have 40 types of high-value medical devices on the international market by 2020 with an output value and export sales worth NT$650 billion (US$ 21.39 billion). By the year 2025, the domestic industry is expected to develop 20 new pharmaceuticals and have 80 types of high-value medical devices on the international market, creating a trillion-dollar industry with a wide range of quality products.

After reporting by MOST, Premier Lin-Chuan said that amendments to relevant laws such as the Fundamental Science and Technology Act, the Act for the Development of Biotech and New Pharmaceuticals Industry and the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act, as well as a draft bill governing the establishment of a national drug evaluation center have been sent to the Legislature for priority review.

To facilitate development of the biomedical industry, the government proposed a “biomedical industrial innovation promotion program” on November 10, 2016. The program centered on the theme of “local, global and future links,” “the biomedical industrial innovation promotion program” includes four action plans: A. Build a comprehensive ecosystem; B. Integrate innovative business clusters; C. Connect global market resources; D. Promote specialized key industries. Premier Lin-Chuan said that biomedicine is a key element in “five plus two” innovative industries policy, and that the administration’s strategic initiatives will require extensive cross-ministry cooperation.

Resource：
1.EXECUTIVE YUAN, Premier backs biomedical industry promotional plans, 2016-05-15
http://www.ey.gov.tw/News_Content2.aspx?n=F8BAEBE9491FC830&sms=99606AC2FCD53A3A&s=418135202E3AFE64
2.EXECUTIVE YUAN, Ministries working together to promote domestic biotech sector, 2015-11-10
http://www.ey.gov.tw/News_Content2.aspx?n=F8BAEBE9491FC830&sms=99606AC2FCD53A3A&s=92A79EBD9C0E2131
3.〈推動臺灣生醫產業發展——打造臺灣成為亞太生醫研發產業重鎮〉，行政院，http://www.ey.gov.tw/hot_topic.aspx?n=1790530619D64B88&sms=3D3EC61B5354AFE2（最後瀏覽日：2017/06/19）。

On May 18th, Council of Agriculture (COA) reported the progress and statues of the“new agriculture” promotion project under the “five plus two innovative industries” program to the Premier. The “new agriculture” promotion project uses innovation technology to bring value to agricultural, and build new agricultural paradigm, agricultural safety systems and promote agricultural marketing. This project also takes resources recycling and environmental sustainability into consideration to promote agricultural transformation, and build a robust new agricultural system.

This agricultural project is expected to increase food self-sufficiency rate to 40%, level up agricultural industry value by NT$43.4 billion, create 370,000 jobs and increase portion of total agricultural exports to new overseas markets to 57% by 2020.

This project contains three aspects:
First is “building new agricultural paradigm”: to protect farmers, agricultural development and ensure sustainability of the environment.
Second is “building agricultural safety systems”: Ensuring product safety and quality, and building a certification system which can be trust by the consumers and is consistent with international standards.
Last but not least is “leveling up agricultural marketing and promotions”: enhancing promotion, making the agricultural industry become profitable and sustainable .

Council of Agriculture’s initiatives also proposed 10 policies to leverage agricultural industry, not only just use the passive subsidies measure of the past. These policies including promoting environmentally friendly farming practices; giving farmers that are beneficial(green) to the land payments; stabilizing farmers’ incomes; increasing the competitiveness of the livestock and poultry industries; using agricultural resources sustainably; ensuring the safety of agricultural products; developing technological innovation; leveling up food security; increasing diversification of domestic and external marketing channels; and increasing agriculture industry added value.

In this statutes report, Council of Agriculture said this project will accelerate reforms, create new agricultural models and safety systems, but also build a new sustainable paradigm of agricultural. Premier Lin Chuan also backed this “five plus two innovative industries” program and “new agriculture” project, and asked Council of Agriculture to reviewing the possible legal changes or amendment that may help to enhance the transformation of agricultural sector.

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

Abstract

The IoT is the network of physical objects accessed through the Internet that can identify themselves to other devices. Given that the number of IoT-enabled devices will grow by the billions over the course of the next half-decade, cybersecurity becomes a serious concern not just in the IoT, but in all the applications, devices or systems where we share information and data. Among all the applications concerning the IoT, Internet of Vehicles (IoV) is an important area which is different from Telematics and Intelligent Transportation, in which vehicles like phones can run within the whole network, and obtain various services by swarm intelligent computing with people, vehicles, and environments. As a result, the impact made by the IoV on the regulatory framework is dramatic and comprehensive. This article focuses upon the latest trends of the regulation and policies, especially those concerning IoT and IoV-related cybersecurity, in the United States and the European Union, including the FTC's 2015 Report, DHS's 2016 Strategic Principles for Securing the IoT, and the EU 2016 NIS Directive. V2V Rules and V2I Guidance proposed by the NHTSA and the FHWA also are discussed. Through the lens of these policies and legislations, this article put the corresponding regulatory framework of Taiwan under examination and shows possible direction for the future.

Keywords: Internet of Things (IoT), Cybersecurity, Internet of Vehicles (IoV), Critical Infrastructure

<Source: Wang, Tzu-Hsiung, Cybersecurity of the IoT and the Internet of Vehicles: Legal Strategies in the U.S. and the EU and Suggestions to Taiwan, Science and Technology Law Review Vol. 29 No. 6, June 2017 p.p. 45-70>

Abstract

For promoting science technology developing, countries have to reach their target by supporting fees of experimental equipment. However, the service life of experimental equipment is usually longer than the length of a researching program. Therefore, this article plans to collect legislation mechanism from the U.S., Japan, and Korea, for the acceptable methods to let the experimental equipments be used and shared to the researching units more than before.

Keywords: Policy of Technology Innovation, Experimental Equipment, Industry-Academic Cooperation

<Source: Lee, Tsu-Shao, Regulations of sharing national experimental equipments in the US, Japan, and Korea, Science and Technology Law Review Vol. 29 No. 4, Apr. 2017 p.p. 52-68>

Abstract

eHealth is generally defined as the use information and communication technology for health. The stakeholders in eHealth may include patients, physicians, healthcare providers, and citizens. In the EU, it is constantly developing eHealth policies, which encompasses two main strategies: 1)The Digital Single Market strategy；2) eHealth Action Plan 2012-2020. The first strategy targets ICT standards and interoperability and encourages the free movement of digital services and goods within the EU. The second eHealth Action Plan 2012-2020 focuses on the supporting of research, development and innovation and achieving wider eHealth services as well. However, it has become more important to develop and review the regulatory framework in the word eHealth. This study is to analyze the issue of data protection and big data and would make some accommodations to remove barriers in eHealth.

Keywords: eHealth, Data Protection, Big Data

<Source: Chuang, Yen-Tzu, An essay on the development of eHealth regulation and policy under the EU legal system, Science and Technology Law Review Vol. 29 No. 2, Feb. 2017 p.p. 58-71>