1. Notification for 483 successful item applications for permission of generic medicine sales to the patent right holders

With the introduction and taking effect of the patent linkage system of the Korea-America FTA, whereby item permission and patenting of medicines are linked, the number of generics, which were notified from the KFDA to the patent right holder of the fact that the item applied for permission was registered in the original medicine patent list (Green List), increased to 822. This number has been estimated to reach 1,600 by the end of this year.

Because enforcement of this system was postponed to March 15 next year, the KFDA will submit a follow-up legislation bill to the National Assembly as a government-legislated bill sooner or later.

Priority sale item permission means that an initial developer pharmaceutical company that has succeeded in a challenge for patent rights is invested with an exclusive right to sell the relevant medicine for a given period. 

2. The range of software to be patented is not to be expanded

The KIPO accepted the opinion of the Ministry of Culture and decided to maintain the previous guidelines defining which software can be protected by patent. The KIPO included the definition of software being 'a computer program that is combined with hardware and stored in media to solve a specific problem' instead of 'a computer program' as was initially planned in the category of software invention. Along with this, it included in the revised examination standards that the description of terms for computer programs, such as application, is allowed and computer programs that are not stored in media are not allowed because the program itself is not claimed.

3. IT companies of America, Japan and Germany set up an association to prevent patent litigation

Representative businesses of America, Japan and Germany built a united front to respond to patent lawsuits. The foreign press reported on the 10th that Google of America, Cannon of Japan, SAP and Dropbox of Germany and three venture businesses set up LOT Network to cope with lawsuits by companies specializing in patents (PAE), so-called patent trolls. Since it plays a role of protecting member companies from patent lawsuits by means of a kind of powerful cross-licensing alliance, it is expected that the damage from patent litigation will be reduced. LOT Network would hold PAEs in check because the number of patents that can be protected will increase as the number of member companies having cutting edge technologies in the fields of IT and car manufacture in the world increases.

4. Cooperation between Korea and China for trademark protection expanded

The KIPO held the third conference of Korea and China trademark office chiefs with the China State Administration for Industry and Commerce on the 8th in Beijing, China. They agreed at the conference on sharing policy information relating to trademark protection of the two countries, exchange and review of public information on trademarks, exchange of information on commodity classification, holding a Korea-China trademark forum for building a cooperation channel between civilian organizations for trademarks, and strengthening an international mutual-assistance system through the TM5 system of five advanced countries in trademarks. Thus, it is expected that the possibility of trademark registration in China for Korean businesses which apply in China is further increased, if information on similar group codes relating to commodity names and future data of public information on Chinese trademarks is made public.

5. The pendency period of intellectual property right is to be reduced to less than one year

The KIPO decided to reduce the pendency period of patent and utility model that takes 13.2 months on average at present to 11.7 months, and 6.5 months for trademark and design (that takes more than 7 months). The KIPO will increase the examiner quota and budget to lower the number of cases of pendency per examiner to the level of advanced countries. The KIPO will lower the number of cases of pendency per examiner to 126 by 2017. Also the KIPO will reinforce the intellectual property examination capability so as to help businesses and inventors commercialize quickly through intellectual property rights.