1. Big Businesses in the Fashion Industry Steal the Designs of Small Businesses to put them out of business

 

Big businesses in the fashion industry are stealing the designs and trademark rights held by small businesses, to put them out of business.  Small-scale enterprises with limited distribution networks degenerate helplessly into “imitation brand” makers once their designs are stolen.  Taking advantage of the weakness of small-scale enterprises having difficulties in proceeding with litigation, large-scale companies deal with small-scale companies with an attitude of, “I don’t care even if you go ahead with suing,” so the problem is getting more serious. 

 

According to the Intellectual Property Rights Protection Center of the Korean Apparel Industry Association, the number of cases of disputes over design infringement in 2009 was less than 10% of the total, but it increased as much as 41% for the first half of last year.  Typically, past design infringement disputes were related to “fakes” which were copies of prestige brands, but recently the disputes are related to large company’s selfish and shameless stealing of small company’s designs are increasing.

 

 

2. Counterfeit Product Reporter to be rewarded … Countdown to introduction of “Fakeparachi”

 

A revised bill for unfair competition prevention law passed the plenary session of the Industry, Trade and Energy Committee of the National Assembly.

 

A reward will be given to any person who reports a so-called “counterfeit product”.  The Trade, Industry & Energy Committee of the National Assembly held a plenary session on the 24^th and voted on a “revised bill (alternative) for the law relating to unfair competition prevention and business secret protection” including such a provision and transferred it to the Legislation and Judiciary Committee of the National Assembly.

 

The revised bill also includes a provision for sentencing an imprisonment of ten years or less or a fine of 100 million won or less for the person who divulged business secrets held by an individual or non-profit organization.  If the sum amounting to ten times the property gain due to divulging a business secret exceeds 100 million won, a fine two or more times to ten or less times the property gain may be imposed.

 

 

3. Korea International Trade Association: “Korea ranks lowest in the OECD countries in technical trade balance”

 

It was shown that the technical trade balance of this country ranks lowest in the OECD countries.  According to a report called “The Way for our Technical Trade to Make Progress in the Realization of a Creative Economy” presented on the 29^th by the Institute for International Trade of the Korea International Trade Association, the technical trade balance of Korea is a deficit of 5.9 billion dollars, ranking lowest in the 34 OECD countries.  Compared with the commodity trade balance (surplus of 31.2 billion dollars, ranking fourth in OECD countries), this has a very low ranking.  The technical trade volume for 2011 was 13,930,000,000 dollars, remaining at 15^th of the OECD countries.  The technical trade balance deficit due to patent royalties paid due to a lack of original patents reached approximately 2,740,000,000 dollars as of 2011.

 

 

4. Korea has been excluded for five years from the priority watch list of U. S. intellectual property rights

 

The 2013 Special Article 301 Report was published by the USTR (Office of the United States Trade Representative) after reviewing the intellectual property right protection status of its major trading partners.  After bringing comprehensive trade law into force in 1988, America made a list of countries that infringe intellectual property rights and has been using it as a trade pressure means for careful monitoring through the Super Article 301 Report every year since 1989.

 

That Korea has been excluded for five years from the priority watch list is thought to be a result of the effectiveness of various policies that have been implemented by our government for protection of intellectual property rights, creation of literary works and activation of their distribution. 

 

But the report expressed concern about governmental policies on goods and services in the areas of drug manufacture and health in Korea, Germany, Greece, Italy, New Zealand, Poland, Turkey and Taiwan, etc.

 

 

5. Purchase of Medicine and Medical Supplies Decreases in America for the first time in 55 years; Pharmaceutical Industry Worries about “Patent Cliff”

 

Expenditures of Americans for purchasing medicine and medical supplies decreased for the first time in 55 years.  This is analyzed to be caused by the fact that lots of cheap substitute generic drugs are on the market as the patents expired for the drugs such as Lipito, a representative cholesterol preventive medicine produced by Pfizer, Flavix, a stroke medicine produced by Bristol-Myers, and ‘Cerokel’, an antidepressant produced by AstraZeneca.

 

The total amount spent by Americans for the purchase of drugs last year was 325.8 billion dollars, which is a decrease of 1% compared with the previous year.  The expenditure per person taking into account the population increase was 898 dollars, which is a decrease of 3.5% compared with the previous year. 

 

Fitch estimated that sales of drug manufacturers will drop sharply by more than 70 billion dollars from the second half of 2011 to the end of 2015 because of the immanent approaching patent cliff due to the patent expiry of such representative new drugs.

 

 

6. The expression of doubleshot is a technical emblem; Namyang Dairy Products did not infringe trademark right; Court rules against Starbucks

 

Startbucks Coffee Company filed a suit with the Court, contending that its trademark “Starbucks Doubleshot” and the expression “Doubleshot” of Namyang Dairy Products could confuse and be misidentified by the consumers.  The Seoul Central District Court Civil Action Section 12 (Chief Judge Hong I-pyo) ruled against the plaintiff in the lawsuit for prohibition of trademark right infringement raised by Starbucks against Namyang Dairy Products, demanding to “stop the use of the trademark that includes the expression ‘Doubleshot’.

 

The Court ruled that the expression ‘Doubleshot’ is no more than a technical emblem meaning coffee with double the concentration, so it is not relevant in terms of trademark rights, judging, “it is difficult to deem that Namyang Dairy Products has infringed a trademark right and also the possibility of confusion is low”.