Taiwan became a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on January 1, 2002. Under the WTO’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs), member countries are obligated to protect works of the nationals of other members. Therefore, if the client is a citizen of the WTO members, their works are entitled to protection in Taiwan due to the reciprocal principle. In addition, Taiwan follows the principle of copyright protection upon creation. According to Article 10 of the Copyright Act in Taiwan, a creator enjoys copyrights as soon as a work is completed. Copyright registration is not a prerequisite for obtaining copyright. In other words, no formal application is necessary to obtain copyright.
Thus, the most important thing is that the creators must be able to prove that they are the owners of the copyrights. Since copyrights are private rights, copyright owners have to bear the burden of proof of the existence of their rights so they should preserve and keep material from the creative process or release of a work or other material relating to their rights to a work, to serve as evidence of their rights.
To avoid the difficulty of submitting evidence, in Taiwan, the creators have some ways to prove their ownership of the copyright, such as sending legal attest letters to the creators themselves, making backup copies of the works in CD-R or DVD-R, leaving their works with a certain organization or a private organization or publishing their works to the public. In addition, the creators can bring their works and relevant material to a notary public in person and ask the notary public to notarize the date of creation and the ownership of the copyright. In other countries, clients may secure additional copyright protection by way of Statutory Declaration, or an official document (usually stamped by a Notary Public) proving the date of creation and the ownership of the copyright.
However, since anyone may send legal attest letters, make backup copies for the works or ask a notary public to notarize the date of creation and the ownership of the copyright, such kinds of documents may still be deemed indirect evidence. It is advisable to preserve and keep material from the creative process, such as the drafts, sketches and the discussions with dates, according to the Article 13 of the Copyright Act in Taiwan: “Where a person’s name or a pseudonym familiar to the public is represented in a normal way as the author on the original of a work, or on a published copy of the work, or in connection with a public release of a work, the person shall be presumed to be the author of the work. The provisions of the preceding paragraph shall apply mutatis mutandis to presumptions concerning the date and place of publication of a work as well as the ownership of economic rights therein.”
(Source: TIPO Newsletter issued on October 05, 2011)
(http://www.tipo.gov.tw/ch/News_NewsContent.aspx?NewsID=5509)
