Establishment of the THPO-IPB

The Taiwan High Prosecutors Office, Intellectual Property Branch (“THPO-IPB”), established on July 1st, 2008, a counterpart to the Intellectual Property Court (“IPC”) is the second instance Office and also the only specialized prosecutors office to deal with one area, i.e. IP related crimes.

Note: Taiwan formulated and promulgated the "Business Disputes Procedure Act" on January 15, 2020. Meanwhile, the "Intellectual Property and Commercial Organization Act" was amended to incorporate the commercial court with the IPC. After the merger, the IPC was renamed as the "Intellectual Property and Commercial Court" (IPCC) on July 1, 2021

Purpose
The purpose of the establishment is to protect intellectual property rights, appropriately handle intellectual property cases, and promote national technological and economic development.

Legal Authority
（1）Article 5 Paragraph 1 of the Intellectual Property Court Organization Act provides that the THPO-IPB is the counterpart to the IPC.
（2）The Executive Yuan, by letter dated March 28, 2008, approved the establishment of the THPO-IPB, in line with establishing the IPC of the Judicial Yuan on July 1st, 2008

Unveiling and Establishment
In March 1996, the Ministry of Justice set up the "Preparatory Group" and the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office set up the "Preparation Affairs Group". After more than one year of planning, the THPO-IPB was jointly unveiled by the Minister of Justice, Wang Ching-feng, the President of the Judicial Yuan, Lai Ying-zhao, and the Chief Prosecutor, Yen Da-ho, and was established on the same day as the IPC.

Changing the Name
In order to implement the doctrine of "separation of trial and prosecution subordination" and to avoid confusing the duties of judges and prosecutors, all the Prosecutors Offices in 2018 changed their names, in accordance with the resolution of the Judicial Reform Conference and cooperated with the Court Organization Law amendment. Since May 25 of the same year, the THPO-IPB had also changed its Chinese name and the new name of the Office was unveiled by Chief Prosecutor Wang Tian-sheng.