The Chairwoman of the Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) expressed her concern that Taiwanese industry may suffer if legal remedies for and definitions of indirect infringement were incorporated into the Patent Act. Besides, the IP Court that has now been the effective court for a year should deal with IP cases. Therefore, specific remedies for and definitions of indirect infringement were not included in this amendment of the Patent Act.

Indirect infringement is when a satellite factory, cooperating with a main factory to provide components of a certain product, knows that to provide components of a transacted product will infringe a patent of a third party but still supplies such components, the satellite factory commits indirect infringement and is liable for damages.

In order to harmonize Taiwan's patent system with international regulations, TIPO started amending the Patent Act on a large scale since last year (2008). TIPO has since held many hearings to collect opinions from academia, industry and government. Originally TIPO scheduled to include direct and indirect infringements into this round of the amendment, but after the hearings, TIPO has decided that this round of amendment will not cover issues related to indirect infringement.

The Chairwoman of TIPO noted that since most companies in Taiwan's industry are ODM or OEM, if Taiwan's patent act regulated indirect infringement, the chances that Taiwan's companies would be sued would greatly increase.

Further, having been the effective court for over a year, there are many different opinions about the process for which the IP Court should hear IP cases. The Chairwoman of TIPO believes that the main task at this stage should be improving the litigation of the IP Court, rather than to codify indirect infringement into the Patent Act.

The Chairwoman of TIPO understands that foreign business owners are concerned with codifying indirect infringement. Though this amendment of the Patent Act will not cover indirect infringement, TIPO already drafted statutes about indirect infringement and will keep watching international trends.