Acceso usuarios
Yuan-Chen (Jessica) Chiang
Unlike Taiwan's Patent Law, which expressly permits parallel importation, and the Trademark Law, where parallel imports have been held permissible by Taiwan courts, Taiwan's Copyright Law, after amendment in 1993, basically forbids parallel imports (articles 87(4) and 87-1). This enactment essentially creates a new distribution right for copyright owners. Since then, parallel imported copyright products have been treated as unlawful copies. Distributors of those parallel imports in Taiwan are therefore subject to both civil and criminal penalties. This article starts by covering the rules that govern parallel imports in Taiwan, their impacts on Taiwan's copyright market and assesses the role Taiwan's international trade policy played in view of its Copyright Law legislation. It also analyses the adverse effects of this ban on parallel imports on Taiwan's trade with other countries. As Taiwan joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2009, it is concluded that the ban on parallel imports may be challenged by other WTO members as an unlawful trade barrier. The existing ban under articles 87(4) and 87-1 of Taiwan's Copyright Law does not properly address the parallel imports issues or serve the objectives of Taiwan's Copyright Law. Fair-use application on a case-by-case basis should be a more adequate approach.
