Newsletter
IPO HELD HEARINGS IN TRADEMARK CASES
If a party affected by a decision of an adminis-trative agency wishes to contest the decision, it must normally file an administrative appeal with the agency's superior agency. Only if the party does not accept the outcome of the administra-tive appeal may it then bring an administrative suit in the administrative court. However, Arti-cle 109 of the Administrative Procedures Act, provides that if an agency renders a decision af-ter holding a hearing to allow interested parties to present testimony, a party that wishes to con-test the decision may bring an administrative suit directly, without the need to first file an admin-istrative appeal.
The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) an-nounced its Guidelines on Hearings for Cases Concerning Trademark Disputes on 15 February 2005. On 20 April 2006, it held two hearings in trademark disputes for the first time. The main purpose of the hearings were to give both sides in the disputes the opportunity to present oral ar-guments; the examiners would then base their decision on the overall facts and evidence in the cases, including the oral arguments presented at the hearings. If either party does not accept the IPO's decisions in the cases, it must bring an administrative suit directly in the Taipei High Administrative Court, rather than filing an ad-ministrative appeal with the Ministry of Eco-nomic Affairs.