Taiwan’s Intellectual Property Office (TIPO), in an email response (No. 1150814) dated August 14, 2026, clarified whether an author may submit the same manuscript to multiple newspapers simultaneously, a practice commonly known as “multiple submission.” According to TIPO, copyright owners are generally entitled to exercise their rights in their works, but whether multiple submission is permitted depends on the agreement between the contributor and the newspaper. If a newspaper expressly prohibits the practice and a contributor nevertheless submits the same manuscript elsewhere, the issue would generally constitute a breach of contract under civil law rather than necessarily amounting to copyright infringement. 

Under Taiwan’s Copyright Act, copyright protects the specific “expression” of ideas and concepts, rather than the ideas or concepts themselves. Accordingly, even when two articles are created from the same idea or concept, each may qualify independently for copyright protection as a literary work, provided that its wording and other forms of expression are original, meet the required level of creativity, and do not fall within categories excluded from copyright protection by law. 

Copyright owners may also transfer their economic rights or license others to use their works. In the case of submissions to newspapers, unless otherwise agreed, a newspaper is presumed to have been granted the right to publish the work only once. Contributors and newspapers may therefore determine the scope of a license by agreement, including the number of publications, permitted forms of use, and other conditions. Whether multiple submission is permissible, or instead constitutes a contractual breach, ultimately depends on the specific terms agreed upon between the contributor and each newspaper.