Lee International

Enhanced Design Protection for Screen Image Designs

Design Protection Act was amended to broaden the protection for new types of screen image designs utilizing digital technologies which consist of visually perceived shape, color and arrangement...

Outside Expert Committee Will Support the Proceeding of Patent Trials as of October 21, 2021

The revised Korean Patent Act, which will be effective as of October 21, 2021, will allow outside expert committee with specialized knowledge and experience to participate...

Misappropriation of Technical or Business Ideas of Others is Now Subject to Punitive Damages.

As part of the recent amendment to the Unfair Competition Prevention and Trade Secret Protection Act (the “UCPA”), which became effective as of April 21, 2021, punitive damages...

Supreme Court Ruled that Technical Difficulty Must Be Considered in Determining Inventive Step of Selection Invention

A selection invention refers to an invention essentially comprising a species, which is selected from a broad genus in the prior art...

Supreme Court Reinforces the First-to-File Rule between Conflicting Registered Marks

The Korean Supreme Court held that the use of a registered mark that is identical or confusingly similar to a prior-registered mark constitutes...

The Title of the Design and Classification for a Secret Design Can be Kept Confidential

As of April 1, 2021, if an applicant requests that a design be kept secret, not only will the drawings and photographs for the design, the essentials of the design...

BAT Claims Patent Infringement against PMI’s HEETS Unit for IQOS, the Leading Heat-Not-Burn Tobacco Device in Korea

Supreme Court Held that Scope of Doctrine of Equivalents May be Narrowed If Core Technical Idea of Patented Invention Was Known