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Newsletter 2020-Spring
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The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) announced that the number of Korean intellectual property (IP) applications filed in 2019 has reached over 500,000 for the first time. This record is achieved in 73 years since the first Korean patent application was filed in 1946. Korea has now become the fourth nation to achieve such feat, following Japan, U.S.A. and China.The total I...
Patent
The Supreme Court held that even if the patentee filed a request for correction trial and received a final and conclusive decision after the hearing in the fact-finding proceedings of the appeal against the Intellectual Property Trial and Appeal Board (IPTAB) decision invalidating the patent, the decision in the correction trial cannot serve as a ground for a retrial of the original decision ba...
Recently, Lee International has handled a case of extending a patent term by about one year under the Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) system which was introduced in 2012. The PTA is process that awards a patent term extension of a patent based on delays in prosecution at the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) if the patent was granted more than four years after the filing date or thre...
According to the revised Patent Act (effective as of March 11, 2020), an act of online transmission of software that illegally utilizes a patented invention may constitute a patent infringement.Under the pre-revised Patent Act, a software invention comprising a patented technology is entitled to patent protection if it claims software in a form that is stored in a recording medium, such as USB ...
The Supreme Court rendered a decision ruling that denying the inventive step of an invention by relying on new closest prior art that is different from the closest prior art cited in a previous office action would constitute a new ground for rejection (Supreme Court Case No. 2015 Hu 2341 issued on October 31, 2019). The Patent Act prescribes that when the Intellectual Property Trial and Ap...
With the commercialization of 5G, image data transmission in mass volume has now become available. Consequently, holography, which provides realistic images, is garnering attention. In particular, as floating holographic technology is becoming more popular, the number of patent applications relating to floating holographic technology is also on the rise.According to statistics provi...
Trademark
The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) announced the following statistical data on the current status of examination period for trademark and design applications over the last five (5) years, along with the expected examination period in 2020.In case of a trademark application under the Madrid protocol or a design application under the Hague system, once an international application is ...
The criteria for evaluating a “period of trademark use” and a “consumer awareness survey,” both of which are used when determining secondary meaning, has been incorporated into the KIPO trademark examination guidelines, effective as of January 1, 2020. Period of trademark use: The use of trademark in a non-competitive and continuous manner for more than five years will be consid...
The Patent Court determined documents showing business transactions as evidence of actual use of a registered mark as the data in the documents is consistently described and that the goods shown in the documents pertain to the goods associated with the registered mark although the documents were personally prepared by the parties in the transactions (Patent Court Case No. 2019 Heo 3274). U...
Lee news
Lee International IP & Law Group had a kick-off meeting for the new year on January 2, 2020 in front of Palgakjeong (octagonal pavilion) on the top of the Namsan Mountain (its height: 262m).It was a freezing-cold morning at -5℃, but all the employees' faces glowed with the delight of starting the new year in a hopeful and enthusiastic mood.The new slogan “20% Growth with Passion in our 20s,...
Lee International was ranked Band 1 as Recognized Practitioner in Patent & Trademark Agents in South Korean for Intellectual Property in “2020 Chambers & Partners – Global.” Lee International was also ranked Band 1 as Recognized Practitioner in Patent Specialists in South Korea for Intellectual Property in “2020 Chambers & Partners – Asia Pacific.” “Chamber & Partners”...
To become a patent attorney in Korea, one must pass the “Patent Attorney Qualification Examination,” which is a national exam. The “Patent Attorney Qualification Examination,” which is offered once a year, is an examination that requires one of the highest levels of academic competency in Korea, such as the “Judicial Examination” for judges, prosecutors, and lawyers, and the “Public Admin...
