Copyright registration in Taiwan. Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. Taiwan’s export-oriented industrial economy is the 21st-largest in the world by nominal GDP, and 20th-largest by PPP measures, with major contributions from steel, machinery, electronics, and chemicals manufacturing. Taiwan is a developed country, ranking 15th in GDP per capita. It is ranked highly in terms of political and civil liberties, education, health care, and human development. Accordingly, many businesses want to enter this market and one of the most important preparations a business needs to take before expanding to this country is to learn the procedure of copyright registration in Taiwan.
Copyright in Taiwan
Unlike other intellectual property rights such as trademarks, patents, industrial designs, plant varieties, etc., copyright does not need to be registered for protection but will be automatically protected from the time the works are created.
The creation must be visible in a certain material form, like content, quality, form, medium, language, published or unpublished, registered or unregistered.
Accordingly, whether registered or not, the copyright to the work will still be protected. However, the creator should still apply for copyright registration in Taiwan early because early registration will give the author/owner of the work many advantages in the event of a dispute.
When unauthorized use of work occurs around the world, the owner of a work who has made a copyright registration in Taiwan will not have to waste time and complicate matters with proving himself/herself to be the legitimate owner of the work.
Thereby, in order to avoid passivity, the owner of the work should make a copyright registration in Taiwan immediately to protect their rights and interests when there is an infringement.
Copyright registration in Taiwan
Taiwan is currently not a member country of The Berne Convention for Copyright.
The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (the Berne Convention) is an international agreement governing copyright. The agreement was first accepted in Berne, Switzerland, in 1886.
Documents for copyright registration in Taiwan
To obtain copyright registration in Taiwan, the author of the work needs to prepare the following documents:
- Declaration of copyright registration in Taiwan;
- Two copies of copyrighted work;
- Documents proving the right to apply;
- Written consent of co-authors, if the work has co-authors;
- Written consent of the co-owners, if the copyright is jointly owned;
- Notarized identity card of the author or owner of the work;
- Power of Attorney, if the applicant is an authorized person;
- Notarized copy of the company’s business registration certificate (if the owner is a company).
The copyright law of Taiwan
Taiwan does not belong to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, or the World Intellectual Property Organization Convention (WIPO).
However, as a member of the WTO and a signatory to the WTO Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), Taiwan has agreed to recognize the copyrights of nationals of all WTO member states, including the United States.
The government of Taiwan, officially known as the Republic of China (ROC), considers itself to be a separate, sovereign state from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), which is commonly referred to as “China.”
The reason Taiwan is not a member of many international IP treaties as well as other international treaties is due to the stance of this country in the world stage. Taiwan (Republic of China) claims to be an independent country, whilst China (People’s Republic of China) denied that claim, stating that Taiwan is a part of the People’s Republic of China ever since the Chinese Civil War.
There is another curious fact that both country, Taiwan and China, claim to be the unique ‘China’ and the other is a fraud. Due to its massive area and influence in the world stage, there are not many country would straightly object PRC’s claim, including some international organizations.
This is part of the reason why Taiwan is not yet a member of many international treaties despite being one of the strongest economies in Asia and the world.
On the other hand, there are some countries that recognize Taiwan as an independent country, like the USA and has pledged to interfere if the PRC conducts military actions against ROC.
You can see a list of Taiwan IP firms here.