Newsletter
COURTS NOT BOUND BY TRADEMARK EXAMINATION GUIDELINES
The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) issued its Main Points for Determining a Well-Known Mark, and various other trademark examination guidelines, to guide its staff in handling various kinds of trademark cases. IPO also issued simi-lar guidelines for patent cases. There has been considerable disagreement in practice as to the legal nature of these guidelines, and whether the courts should be bound by them when hearing administrative litigation or infringement actions related to trademarks or patents.
In a 2004 judgment, the Supreme Court stated that Article 80 of the ROC Constitution places judges under a duty to handle cases independ-ently in accordance with the law. Therefore, a judge is not necessarily bound by regulations and decisions made by an administrative agency, or by the agency's answers to the court's written inquiries. When determining the facts and ap-plicable law in a case, a judge may, within the scope of his powers and on the basis of fair and honest conviction, decide whether to accept or reject the IPO's regulations, administrative deci-sions or written answers, in accordance with the relevant law.