The Taiwan government deserves congratulations for its recent enactment of landmark legislation establishing a Patent Linkage system for pharmaceutical products, a mechanism designed to prevent infringing drugs from being licensed while an original medication still holds a valid patent in this market. Credit goes both to the executive branch agencies that ushered through this initiative…

The legislature is expected to loosen the current restrictions on media shareholding by government or political entities. BY TIMOTHY FERRY AND DON SHAPIRO The Legislative Yuan is currently considering draft amendments to Taiwan’s three primary media laws that would allow limited investment in electronic media operations by government, political parties, and the military. Current regulations…

Taiwan is preparing to join APEC’s Cross-Border Privacy Rules system. Last year Taiwan (or “Chinese Taipei” as it is known within APEC, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum) announced plans to prepare to join the group’s Cross-Border Privacy Rules (CBPR) system designed to facilitate the flow of data across the Asia-Pacific region. To participate in…

After much controversy, a revised Labor Standards Law has now been enacted in Taiwan.

Company HR representatives cite an urgent need for greater flexibility. When Deputy Labor Minister Liau Huei-Fang accepted an invitation from AmCham Taipei’s Human Resources Committee to exchange views with Committee members about recently implemented amendments to the Labor Standards Law (LSL), more than 100 HR specialists showed up for the meeting on April 19. The…

Taiwan revises its law, but eligibility terms seem strict. A revision to the Nationality Act passed in December and promulgated last month will make it easier–but not nearly as easy as many long-term foreign residents of Taiwan had hoped–for nationals of other countries to become citizens of the Republic of China without having to relinquish…

Continuing its efforts to enable Taiwan to overcome political obsacles to gain access to vital health and security-related information from international organizations, the United States government has committed to helping Taiwan participate as an observer in meetings of the International Criminal Police Organization, more commonly known as Interpol. On March 18, President Barack Obama signed…