1. KIPO introduces an Intellectual Property Management Authentication System to strengthen corporate capabilities of small and medium businesses

The KIPO will be the first in the world to implement an authentication system by selecting small and medium businesses which are exemplary in executing intellectual property management. Any firm authenticated for intellectual property management will have benefits such as patent/design priority examination, exemption of patent/design yearly registration fees, and preferential treatment for government-aided projects. Also, the authenticated firm may use the ‘intellectual property management authentication mark’ in promotion activities so as to enhance its credibility and recognizability. The examination will be conducted for ten fields including the application firm’s ownership status of intellectual property rights, the trend of patent techniques, and prior check on disputes over intellectual property rights. An authentication certificate will be given to any firm which has scored 70 or more points out of the perfect score of 100 points. Authentication will expire in three years, after which re-authentication will be possible.

2. Supreme Court rules “Inheritance tax should be levied on Andre Kim’s Trademark Rights” … over 700 million won for brand name

Supreme Court Section 2 (Chief Judge: Justice Jo Hee-Dae) turned down the demand, “Revoke inheritance tax 759 million won or so,” in the suit raised by Mr. Kim Jung-Do (36), son of Andre Kim, and Mr. Lim Se-Woo (55), secretary, against Gangnam Tax Service. Namely, it ruled that inheritance tax should also be levied on trademark rights. Mr. Kim et al. raised the suit contending that trademark rights are included in the valuation of goodwill. But, the First/Second Trial Court ruled, “Andre Kim’s trademark rights are separate independent goods receiving royalties from other firms,’ and “should be evaluated as property rights independent of business rights.” This takes into consideration the fact that trademark rights rental fees make up a great portion of Andre Kim’s Boutique business, as much as 92.2% of the earnings from 2007 to 2009.

3. Ministry of Food and Drug Safety makes a civilian-governmental consultative body to provide support for drug exports

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (Minister Sohn Mun-Ki) will make a civilian-governmental consultative body for strengthening competitiveness in raw material medicine exports to enhance exports by formulating export strategies for exporting raw material medicines to Japan and Central and South Americas, where the generic medicine markets are growing due to the expiry of patents of global large-scale new medicines. The Japanese government plans to increase by more than 80% its market share of generic medicines instead of costly new medicines. Japan accounts for 15% of the world medicine market and its annual average growth rate of generic medicine amounts to 20%. This consultative body will be attended by representatives of ten makers of raw material medicine including Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Korea Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association, Chongkundang Bio, and the like, and will hold a Korean-Japanese Generic Drug Manufacturing Forum which will co-hosted by Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Japan on June 24 in Tokyo, Japan to seek a cooperative scheme between Korean raw material medicine makers and Japanese generic medicine makers.

4. KIPO “all evidence must be submitted for invalidation trial”

The KIPO presented a scheme for compulsory submission of all evidence for a patent invalidation trial. This is based on a judgment that a dispute may be prolonged because an original trial decision is overturned with the appearance at the Court of evidence that was not submitted to the Intellectual Property Tribunal at the time of determining on patent invalidation. In 2014, the rate at which patents were judged to be valid by the Intellectual Property Tribunal were overturned at the upper trial court was 68.1%, which is about three times higher than 22.7% recorded by Japan in 2013. KIPO has indicated, “America amended its patent law in 2012 to introduce the IPR so as to have all evidence submitted to the Intellectual Property Tribunal,” and that “If our Court restricts the submission of new evidence such as in U. S. Courts, speedy resolution of disputes and cost reductions will be possible and predictability will increase.” But the Intellectual Property Tribunal took the opposite stance, expressing doubts on the effectiveness of these measures.