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Amendment of Intellectual Property Case Adjudication Act
The Taiwan Legislation Yuan passed the Amendment of Intellectual Property Case Adjudication Act on January 12th, 2023. According to Judicial Yuan, for the purpose of protecting trade secret, the new Act regulates that all the IP civil cases in the first instance shall be exclusively governed by Intellectual Property and Commercial Court, and all trade secret criminal case in first instance shall be governed by Intellectual Property and Commercial Court.
In addition, the criminal liability of violation of confidentiality preservation order has been increased to enhance the protection of the secret of the parties. Furthermore, in consideration of the special legal and technique fields of IP cases, the new Act regulates that some specific type of cases must be claimed by appointed lawyers, so the court procedures of IP cases would be facilitated.
Amendment of Immigration Act on January 12th, 2023.
The Taiwan Executive Yuan passed the Amendment of Immigration Act to attract professionals and enhance human rights protection, while also increasing the penalties for people who overstay in Taiwan.
Regarding foreigners who overstay in Taiwan, the new law increases the penalty of overstay to enhance the management of foreign people in Taiwan for the purpose of social security.
However, the new law also loosens the rules of the ARC application, regulating that foreigners who got married to Taiwanese nationals, staying in Taiwan, and raising Taiwanese minor children, may apply for Alien Resident Card (“ARC”).
Shareholder Has No Right to Review the Account Book if there is a Supervisor in a Company Limited by Shares
Taiwan High Court made a judgment on December 7th, 2022, saying that in a company limited by shares with a system of supervisors, the shareholder is not allowed to review or copy the account book of the company.
In this case, a shareholder who claims that the company shall provide the account book to the shareholder to check if there is any crime of tunneling (hollowing out the company) has no right to do so.
Indeed, the court considered that since there is the system of supervisor in a company limited by shares, the supervisor can and is liable to check the accountings of the company. Therefore, a shareholder may not ask the company to provide account book directly.
