1. Supreme Court rules “Selling a fake is illegal even if you let it be known that it is one.”

 

Mr. Kim so-and-so, who runs an internet shopping mall for women’s clothing, sold imitations of the Italian brand ‘Vivian Westwood’ bags after changing the last letter ‘d’ to ‘x’ (i.e. Vivian Westwoox) to let the consumer know that it is an imitation. At a price of about 1/100 of the original, it was a steady seller for six months.  On a charge of violation of laws relating to unfair competition prevention and business secret protection, it was tried in the courts two times, but Mr. Kim was judged not guilty.

But the Supreme Court Section 3 (Chief Judge: Justice Lee Sang-hoon) overturned the original decision, ruling “Mr. Kim’s selling a fake is an act of violating the unfair competition law as it could cause confusion between the commodity and the origin.”

 

 

2. KIPO reduces or exempts patent fees for mid-sized enterprises

 

From January 1 this year, patent fees will be lowered for mid-sized enterprises.  The KIPO (commissioner Kim Ho-won) announced that it would introduce a patent fee reduction/exemption system for mid-sized enterprises on January 1 this year to alleviate their economic burden and diversify the means of paying patent fees to make it more convenient to pay the fees.

To be of help for the government-wide effort for encouraging and promoting mid-sized enterprises for technological innovation and intellectual property creation, the application fees of patents, utility model and design, the examination request fees, and the registration fees for the first three years were reduced by 30%, so it is expected that the cost burden for patent applications would be alleviated.

 

 

3. The number of patent applications by Korea, China and Japan exceeds one million per year

 

According to a recent announcement by the ‘IP5’, which is an alliance of the five major IP countries, the number of patent applications by Korea, China and Japan increased greatly by 15.7% over the previous year to 1,047,900, exceeding one million for the first time.  The members of the IP5 are Korea, China, Japan, America and Europe patent offices.

Of the IP5, China with 526,400 patent applications, which is an increase of 34.6% over the previous year, beat America with 503,600 patent applications, an increase of 2.7% over the previous year.  Korea had an increase of 5% with 178,900 patent applications, and Japan had a decrease of about 0.5% with 342,600.  Europe had 142,800 patent applications, a decrease of about 5%, reflecting a business recession.  The three countries of Korea, China and Japan had more patent applications than Europe, which is a union of 18 countries.

 

 

4. Supreme Court rules, “Montessori cannot be acknowledged as an exclusive trademark.”

 

The Supreme Court ruled that since the word ‘Montessori’ is a common designation for a specific child education theory or learning aids applying the theory, it cannot be acknowledged as an exclusive trademark of a specific person. 

The Supreme Court Section 1 (Chief Judge: Justice Yang Chang-soo) announced on December 31 last year that it confirmed the original decision that ruled for the plaintiff in the trademark registration invalidation suit that Aga World, Ltd. filed against Korea Montessori, Ltd.

The court ruled that “the trademark composed of Korean ‘몬테소리’ or ‘English MONTESSORI’ only, without a special design cannot be deemed to have recognizability.”

Adding, “The word Montessori is recognized by general consumers as a child education theory or learning aids applying the theory,” the court explained, “Without a special design, it cannot be deemed to have recognizability and having a specific person monopolize it is not appropriate either.”

 

 

5. KIPO and Korea Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association push for a ‘patent policy consultative council’

 

As patents in the field of intellectual property is emerging as an industry playing an essential part in the pharmaceutical industry of this country, a ‘patent policy consultative council’ has been formed for a closer cooperative relationship between pharmaceutical manufacturers and the relevant bureau of the KIPO.

The Korea Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (chairman Lee Kyung-ho) announced that they finished discussions with the KIPO to form a consultative body composed of CEOs or officers of pharmaceutical companies and the high-ranking officials including the director general of the Chemistry and Biotechnology Examination Bureau of the KIPO, in order to enhance the recognition of intellectual property rights and derive a scheme of support for the pharmaceutical industry.  This consultative council will play a role of presenting policy orientation for enhancing the recognition of the intellectual property rights of pharmaceutical companies.

 

 

6. The number of patent and trademark applications in Korea exceeded 400,000 last year

 

Last year the number of applications for industrial property rights of patents and trademarks increased in this country.  The KIPO announced that tentative calculations of applications for industrial intellectual property rights in 2012 showed a total of 400,815 applications for patents, trademarks and designs, increasing by about 8% compared with 371,116 in 2011.

To see by specific rights, patent applications were totaled to be 192,575 with an increase of 7.6% over the previous year, utility model applications were 12,467 with an increase of 5.2%, trademarks at 132,620 increased by 7.1%, and designs at 63,153 increased by 11.7%.  In the number of patent applications, after it exceeded 170,000 in 2010, which was the level before the financial crisis (2008), it has showed a steady increase for the subsequent two years, with 178,924 in 2011 and 192,572 in 2012.

To see by the right holder, large businesses accounted for 25.5% (49,167) and small and medium businesses 15.2% (29,187), two businesses of which accounted for 40.7% of the total applications, and applications by foreigners accounted for 23.0% (44,329).