The novel coronavirus or COVID-19 brings numerous potential and actual legal risks, ranging from the supply chain to human resource matters. Following the declaration by the World Health Organization (where Taiwan unfortunately has neither membership nor observer status) of a public health emergency at the end of January, businesses need to take precautions regarding affected…
Advice from a long-time in-house counsel on arranging for external legal support. Working with outside counsel can be frustrating, time-consuming, and expensive. But when done right, the advice and services outside counsel provide are invaluable. Through 20 years of trial and error, and after spending millions of dollars on outside counsel fees, I have learned…
Following the enactment this past March of the new Act Governing Cosmetic Sanitation and Safety (the Cosmetics Act for short), the Cosmetics Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei made a number of suggestions for remedying shortcomings in the law through the implementation regulations that are yet to be drafted. In its position…
Fresh consideration of the profession’s status is currently under way. Special to Topics Online Taiwan continues to be one of the very few jurisdictions in the world where the profession of chiropractic lacks legal recognition. Its doctors of chiropractic – educated and licensed in the United States and other advanced countries – exist in Taiwan…
Companies need to pay proper attention to trademark registration and licensing on a global basis. By Richard L. Thurston and Christopher M. Neumeyer Strategies that companies employ to increase revenue and improve competitiveness often focus on promoting and protecting a company’s image, reputation, and branding. An obvious cornerstone of such strategies is the strategic development,…
BY NATHAN SNYDER AND JEFFREY LIEN Early this year, Taiwan’s legislature passed a set of amendments to the Labor Standards Act (LSA), Taiwan’s core statute governing labor and employment. These amendments, which were officially implemented on March 1, 2018, feature changes intended to provide greater flexibility to employers whose business needs may make compliance with the…
For years, a key element in AmCham Taipei’s advocacy agenda has been an appeal to the government to ease the way for foreign white-collar personnel to live and work in Taiwan. Major progress was made in that direction with the Legislative Yuan’s passage on October 31 of an Act for the Recruitment and Employment of…
BY JOHN EASTWOOD, HEATHER HSIAO AND JEFFREY LIEN It’s never pleasant when a company needs to get rid of a senior manager, but many practical issues arise when a termination has to occur. American companies operating in Taiwan and in the larger Asia-Pacific region have started placing greater emphasis on legal, ethical, and office-conduct compliance,…
Criminal cases are moving through the courts, but companies see the need for still more education of judges and prosecutors. China is pushing rapidly to meet ambitious targets for developing its high-tech industries in its quest to move its economy up the global value chain and achieve greater self-sufficiency. As it does so, though, leading…
Strengthening protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) is crucial to attracting investment in Taiwan’s pharmaceutical sector. In order to better protect IPR for innovative products, the Pharmaceutical Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei recommends completing the legislative process for Patent Linkage and Data Exclusivity. Patent Linkage prevents regulatory authorization of generic medicines…
