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Submitted By: Formosan Brothers

Taipei, Taiwan

In respect to the protection of copyrights, Taiwan adopts the idea of “creation protectionism,” whereby after a work is completed, it will be pro-tected by copyright without investigation by authorities, as long as the protection requirements imposed by the Copyright Act are satisfied.  Thus, if the copyright owner wishes to claim for the infringement of his/her cop-yright against others, the copyright owner needs to prove that he/she is the real copyright owner. This is supported by the Supreme Court’s Criminal Judgment 99 Tai-Shang-Zi No. 3777 (year 2010) and the Supreme Court’s Civil Judgment 97 Tai-Shang-Zi No. 1671 (year 2008), in which the court held that: “Copyright owner has the burden of proof in respect to the fol-lowing matters: (1) Identity of authors, to prove that the work is done by the owner who claims the rights, including evidences such as whether the copyright owner has the creativity and adequate or reasonable time and manpower to finish the work, and whether he/she could provide documents produced during the process of creation. (2) The specific time when the work is finished, the commencement of the work will determine the grounds of the applicable law and whether the work is protected by Copy-right Act. (3) The work is independently created, there is no copying or plagiarism, so as to prove that the author had created the work without access to other people’s works as references”

Thus, in order to avoid the work from being used or stolen without consent, it is suggested that the copyright owners should keep all materials produced during the course of creation publication and other events that give rise to rights and entitlement to the said work, so that in the event of future disputes, such documents may be submitted as evidence of proofs.

For more information on Formosan Brothers, please visit www.fblaw.com.tw or the International Society of Primerus Law Firms.