Former minister of education Wu Maw-kuen (吳茂昆) was yesterday impeached by the Control Yuan for contravening the Public Functionary Service Act (公務員服務法) and Act on the Recusal of Public Servants Due to Conflict of Interest (公職人員利益衝突迴避法) after he was found to have applied for patents for a technology owned by National Dong Hwa University in the name of his company.
The Control Yuan in April launched an investigation into Wu’s involvement with a company called Spiranthes Biotech LLC, which he founded in California in 2015, after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko Chih-en (柯志恩) accused him of illegally founding the company and applying for patents for technology he invented with a research team at the university.
Members on the Control Yuan’ examination committee unanimously voted to impeach Wu. It was the first time an examination committee at a government branch held an open vote that resulted in a unanimous decision.
Photo: CNA
Wu applied to establish the company on Aug. 18, 2015, and founded it on Sept. 2 after the state government approved his application, a Control Yuan report said.
Wu was one of the shareholders at the company, with managerial control over business operations, and participated in its patent application process, it said.
The company had a registered capital of US$1,000, with US$200 coming from Wu, which contravenes Article 13, Paragraph 1 of the Public Functionary Service Act, which bans civil servants from owning and investing in businesses, the report said.
Wu also encroached upon the university’s rights by applying for patents for its technology in the name of his company, it said.
During his term as university president, Wu approved a school budget to cover the expenses his company needed to apply for patents, the report said.
The university on March 15, 2016, wired NT$766,952 to the law firm WSGR without knowing that the patent application was to be submitted in the name of Wu’s company, it said.
This violated provisions on conflict of interest in the Public Functionary Service Act and the Act on the Recusal of Public Servants Due to Conflict of Interest, it said.
Wu yesterday denied any wrongdoing.
In April, Wu said that he had planned to return the patent rights to the university once the company obtained them in the US and China.
He also said that it is common practice for inventors to apply for patents for their inventions, then negotiate with their university on how to share the revenue.
Additional reporting by Ann Maxon
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS