台灣營業秘密保護促進協會

The Trade Secrets Act possesses only civil with no criminal liabilities. As such, past trade secret misappropriation cases could only turn to causes such as breach of trust and unauthorized disclosure of trade secrets under the Criminal Code for trade secret protection. However, as the criminal penalty is not severe enough to deter misappropriations and its scope not comprehensive enough to cover all trade secret categories, legal protections then cannot protect trade secrets effectively.

With strong support from government agencies in our country and private sector companies such as TSMC, MediaTek, Taiwan Corning, and AU Optronics, the Trade Secrets Act has been amended to include criminal penalties and to provide more comprehensive guidelines on prohibited conduct. This serves as a deterrent to potential offenders.

The aforementioned high-tech companies established the "Taiwan Association for Trade Secrets Protection", with Sylvia Fang, the Senior Vice President and General Counsel of TSMC serving as the first and second term chairman, continuously participating and promoting legislation related to trade secret protection, with the goal of improving the overall environment of trade secret protection in Taiwan. The third and fourth term chairman is David Su, the Senior Vice President and General Counsel of MediaTek.

The Taiwan Association for Trade Secrets Protection serves not only as a platform for the industry to exchange trade secrets protection policies but also plays a diverse role in providing advice to the government, promoting dialogue between industry and the government, and assisting scholars, experts, and practitioners to better understand the characteristics of the high-tech industry.

The fifth term’s chairman is Fortune Shieh, TSMC’s Associate General Counsel.