1. "Identical or similar trademarks can be registered if the previous trademark holder agrees.

In the future, identical or similar trademarks will be able to be registered and used with the consent of the person who first applied for or registered the trademark. The Trademark Act Amendment Bill passed the plenary session of the National Assembly on the 6th and is expected to go into effect in April next year.

The trademark coexistence consent system refers to a system that allows identical or similar later-filed trademarks to be registered and used if the holder of the prior trademark right and the prior applicant agree. However, for the protection of consumers, if either of the trademarks that have coexisted is later used for fraudulent purposes and causes misunderstanding or confusion among consumers, the registration may be cancelled. Currently, it is a previously registered trademark or a later filed trademark that is identical or similar to the earlier filed trademark. registration is refused. More than 40% of all rejected trademarks were rejected for this reason, and 82% of the rejected trademarks were trademarks applied for by small and medium-sized businesses and small business owners. When the trademark coexistence consent system is introduced, trademark holders of prior trademarks agree in advance to the use of similar trademarks, so future occurrences can occur. It is also expected to have the effect of preventing possible trademark disputes. Major countries such as the United States and Singapore have already introduced this system, and in Japan, a law amendment to introduce this system passed the National Assembly last June and is about to be implemented.

2. Korean Intellectual Property Office implements immediate loan system for small and medium-sized enterprise intellectual property dispute costs

The Korean Intellectual Property Office announced on the 9th that it will implement the ‘Intellectual Property Deduction Dispute Cost Immediate Loan System’ that allows you to receive a loan within 6 months of signing up.

When small and medium-sized companies that subscribe to the intellectual property deduction system become embroiled in an intellectual property dispute, they will be able to immediately receive a loan to cover the costs of hiring a patent attorney and lawyer. Until now, a loan was only available after signing up for the deduction and paying for more than six months.

The Korean Intellectual Property Office announced on the 10th that it will implement the ‘Intellectual Property Deduction Dispute Cost Immediate Loan System’ to help small and medium-sized companies quickly respond to patent infringement lawsuits. The Intellectual Property Mutual Aid System is a system that provides loans to companies that subscribe to up to 5 times the accumulated amount of funds needed to respond to domestic and international intellectual property disputes or file applications. You can save a set amount every month in the form of savings, and receive the principal and interest all at once when the contract is terminated. Currently, nearly 15,000 companies have signed up, and the cumulative amount reaches 183.4 billion won.

3. 25 trillion in damage from overseas industrial technology over 5 years… Of these, 36% are national core technologies.

Over the past five years, the amount of damage due to the outflow of industrial technology overseas has reached 25 trillion won, but only 9 prison sentences have been imposed. The office of Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Jang-seop, a member of the National Assembly Trade, Industry, Energy, Small and Medium Venture Business Committee, submitted a report from the Korean Intellectual Property Office and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. According to the data received, from 2019 to August of this year, the number of cases of overseas leakage of industrial technology was found to be 84. In particular, about one-third (31 cases) of the leaked industrial technologies were found to be national core technologies. By industry, semiconductors, Korea's main industry, had the most technology leaks with 29 cases, followed by displays (16 cases), and electricity/electronics and automobiles (8 cases). , it was found that there were 7 leaks in machinery, 4 in information and communication, and 3 in shipbuilding. The damage to companies due to technology leaks over the five years from 2018 to 2022 amounted to 25 trillion won, but the punishment was found to be mild.

According to the court's ruling status, it was revealed that 155 people were brought to court for violating the Industrial Technology Protection Act from 2018 to 2022. During the same period, 9 people were sentenced to prison, 29 people were found not guilty, and 36 people were sentenced to probation. It is pointed out that the sentencing standards are insufficient compared to the scale of damage caused by violation of the Industrial Technology Protection Act.

4. Korea ranks first in the world in domestic patent applications per $100 billion in GDP

According to the '2023 World Intellectual Property Index' recently announced by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) by counting the number of applications from each country in 2022, Korea Intellectual Property Research Institute ranks first in the world with 7,828 domestic patent applications per $100 billion in GDP. It was announced on the 22nd that it ranked above. Korea was followed by China with 5,702 cases, Japan with 4,200 cases, Switzerland with 1,831 cases, and Germany with 1,924 cases. Korea has recorded the highest number of domestic patent applications per GDP of $100 billion for five consecutive years since 2018. Ranked first in the world. This shows that our people's patent activities are relatively very active. Meanwhile, in 2022, a total of 3,457,400 patent applications were filed worldwide, an increase of approximately 1.7% from the previous year. Of these, patent applications received by patent offices in Korea, China, the United States, Japan, and the European Union (IP5) accounted for approximately 84.9%. The Korean Intellectual Property Office was found to have received a total of 237,633 patent applications in 2022, the fourth largest number of patent applications in the world after the Chinese, U.S., and Japanese patent offices.