1. ‘Abnormal’ patent practice to be uprooted

The KIPO will eradicate trademark brokers and clamp down on fake goods for the safety of the people. It will eradicate brokers who acquire trademark rights for the purpose of unfair profits such as settlement money or usage fees instead of using them for goods and doing business.

The trademark broker damage report site opened last January has dealt with 109 cases relating to the reporting and counseling of trademark issues as of September. A clampdown on fake goods has increased by five times compared to the same period as the previous year as of September with 287 criminal cases of trademark law violation and 91,000 confiscations of forged goods. In addition, expanded monitoring for intercepting online transactions led to the exposure and closure of 4,694 selling sites.

2. Patents originating from government R&D projects can be owned by enterprises

Public-sector patents will be widely available for the private sector as patents originating from government-ordered projects can soon be owned by private enterprises. First of all, the patents of service projects ordered by the government, such as software development, will be allowed for private companies to own. Until now the patents of service projects have been owned jointly by the government and enterprises. Due to this, even if a company put in an additional effort, it had many limitations in expanding its business. From now on, if a company has sole ownership, a variety of means of utilization will become possible for the company such as developing follow-up new products, borrowing money with the patent as collateral, and transferring the patent to other companies. The Ministry of Strategy and

Finance will change the regulations related to government-ordered projects by the end of this year.

3. KIPO finalizes Large Business Group Trademark Management and Evaluation Guidelines

Until now it has been possible for subsidiary companies to register trademarks incorporating a group name. But from now on, registration will not be possible unless the trademark management company or holding company files an application.

Because it is not possible to use similar trademarks in similar types of business for different corporate bodies, which are different persons in terms of Trademark Law even if they belong to the same business group, the holding company registers the trademarks and gives licensing to the subsidiaries in most large business groups. More than 100 subsidiaries, such as Lotte Tour, Hyundai Motor, Hyundai Heavy Industries, and Hyundai Department Store, are using trademarks incorporating the group name despite the fact that they are not subsidiaries of the group. In this regard, consumers are confused and may misrecognize them as subsidiaries.

4. Last year this country’s R&D investment of 59 trillion 300.9 billion won ranked first compared to GDP in the OECD for two years in a row

Last year this country’s total R&D investment added up to 59 trillion 300.9 billion won, which is an increase of 6.9% over the previous year, ranking 6^thintheworld. The R&D investment ratio to the GDP is 4.15%, and has ranked first in OECD countries for two years in a row.

However, the absolute amount of R&D investment is greatly different from that of America (453.4 billion dollars), Japan (199.1 billion dollars), China (163.1 billion dollars), and Germany (102 billion dollars) due to the difference in the scale of economy.

Our government plans to raise the R&D ratio to GDP to 5% by 2017, so this country is expected to continue to maintain first place for a while. However, despite an increase in R&D investments, the decreasing revenue of engineering fees and a decrease in the quality of patents are points to be improved.

5. As the accuracy of patent examination was increased, the number of patent lawsuits has decreased.

As the accuracy of patent examination was increased, it has been shown that patent trolls (NPEs), which profit from lawsuit settlement money, can be regulated effectively.

According to Lex Mechina, an American law information provider, the number of patent lawsuit cases filed with the U.S. Federal District Court in September this year is 329, which shows a decrease of about 40% compared to the same period of the previous year. In April this year the largest number of cases of all time were filed, but since May the number has decreased remarkably compared to the same period of the previous year.

Experts point out that recently Federal District Court judges decide on cases with considerable emphasis put on the results of reexamination by patent office examiners who have a relatively high degree of technical understanding. However, they went on to explain that it is frequent that a decision is deferred until the results of patent office reexamination come out.