1. Up to 3 times compensation if infringement of Patent and trade secret is intentional from June, 2019

The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) said it has passed the Patent Law, which enforces the punitive damages system for patent infringement, and the amendment bill on the prevention of unfair competition and trade secret protection. If punitive damages are inflicted on patent rights or trade secrets of others from June next year, a punitive damages system will be introduced, which is liable up to three times the amount of damages. According to the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) analysis, the median value of damages in Korean patent infringement lawsuit is 60 million won, which is much less than US $ 6.57 billion. In order to rectify this distorted market order and strengthen the foundation for protection of intellectual property, the 'punitive damages system' was introduced to allow the compensation amount to be set within three times the amount recognized as damages in case of intentional infringement .

2. The scope of patent protection for anticancer drugs and rare disease drugs will be expanded from next year."

According to the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), an amendment to the regulation will be enforced in February next year after the industry has agreed to review and approve the regulation. If an amendment is made, even if a drug for the same disease with the same component is found, a 'remarkable effect' can be obtained according to the use of a particular patient group. In the future, if the scope of patent protection expands, patents will be relatively easy to obtain, and related research will be activated, and consumers and patients will benefit from more affordable treatment. "Europe, the United States and Japan have been expanding the scope of patent protection for related technologies such as precision medical and artificial intelligence (AI) diagnostics for more than 10 years,

3. Famous company name Domain preemption to be transferred when there is an 'illegal purpose'.

The 62nd Division of Civil Affairs of the Seoul Central District Court (Chief Justice Ham Suk-chun) said that the purpose of obtaining unfair advantage is that even though A has preempted the domain name of another person in the lawsuit against Unipol against the domain name transfer claim (532411 in 2017). If it was found to be there, it should be transferred. In February 2007, A registered and held a domain name of 'www.Unipol.com' through the domain name registrar. Meanwhile, there was a well-known insurance company Unipol Gruppo S.P.A, founded in 1963 in Italy. The company was an investment holding company listed on the Italian Stock Exchange in 1990 and had several trademarks that included 'Unipol' in the Italian Patent Office. Unipole applied for a dispute settlement requesting the transfer of the domain name against A, saying that in February of last year the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) arbitration center claimed that his trademark was identical to the domain name held by Mr. A. The WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center decided in April of last year that A has registered and possessed a domain name for fraudulent purposes. Mr. A then objected to the arbitration center's decision and filed a lawsuit to suspend the execution of the center's decision.

4. 5 domestic bio-related organizations, joint response against Nagoya Protocol

Korea Cosmetics Association, Korea Health Food Function Association, Korea Bio Association, Korea Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association, and Korea Pharmaceutical Biological Society have recently held related meetings and decided to implement countermeasures.

These five associations plan to state their position on the application of the Nagoya Protocol to the Digital Sequence Information (DSI). The DSI is currently in public data and is freely available. However, it is the position of the associations that research and development (R & D) can be impeded if they are included in the Nagoya Protocol. In addition, the WIPO-IGC said it is imperative for the domestic industry to disclose source of genetic resources, including exposure to confidentiality of companies and delays in filing of applications.