1. Brazil patent registration, which took 11 years, shortened to 8 months

The Korean Intellectual Property Office announced that it will launch a “Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH)” program with Brazil from April 1 as part of its support for acquiring overseas intellectual property rights for Korean companies to advance overseas. South Korea's exports to Brazil amounted to $ 4.9 billion annually, and more than 2,500 patent applications have been filed since 2012, increasing the importance of domestic companies' protection and use of intellectual property rights in Brazil. Until now, when applying for a patent in Brazil, the average examination period was over 11 years, which made it difficult to protect the rights of domestic companies promptly. With the implementation of this PPH, Korean companies aiming at the Brazilian market will be able to preempt intellectual property rights quickly and lay the foundation for commercialization.

2. The Korean Intellectual Property Office temporarily implements the suspension of the international patent application fee payment period until the end of this year

The Korean Intellectual Property Office announced that it would postpone the payment period of PCT international patent application fees for one month by the end of this year. Accordingly, the international applicant can pay the normal fee without an additional fee within 2 months after the international patent application is received, thereby reducing the economic burden.

This measure is to implement concrete international cooperation measures discussed as Corona 19 countermeasures at a remote meeting between the chief of the Patent Office of 16 major countries including Korea and the Secretary-General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) of Francis Gurry on April 20.

In spite of the aftermath of Corona 19, the Korean Intellectual Property Office expects that the international patent application filed with the Korean Intellectual Property Office until April of this year has increased 12.6% compared to the same period last year, and the effect of deferring the payment period through exemption of the surcharge is expected to increase.

3. Start-up ideas are legally protected by preventing technology infringement

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups expands the lease system to R&D of all SMEs supported by the government to further strengthen the technology protection of SMEs, and also establishes a lease system for ideas of start-up companies. The lease system is what protects trade secrets in a private way by giving legal estimation power to the timing or fact of technology development. When this system is expanded and introduced, SMEs and ventures can be comprehensively recognized for patents with only ideas, so that controversy over technology and idea leakage to large companies can be prevented. In order to proactively prevent technology infringement and leakage, it is mandatory to place technology in a smart factory. Smart factories above a certain level are obliged to build a security system and to be provided security control services from specialized organizations. In addition, the “Korean Discovery” is introduced in intellectual property lawsuits, relief for technology infringement will be expanded, such as mitigation of reporting requirements for technology infringement (revision of the Small and Medium Business Technology Protection Act).

4. [Decision] The Supreme Court confirmed the decision to “reward 300 million won for unfair competition for theft of performance”.

The Supreme Court ruled that the unauthorized use of a comprehensive image of golf courses and landscapes built by a golf course in a screen golf game corresponds to 'unfair competition for theft of achievements' under the Act on Prevention of Unfair Competition and Protection of Trade Secrets. In this ruling, intangibles that are not tangibles are included in the 'performance', and when judging the results, the criteria for comprehensively considering the outcome's reputation, economic value, and weight and competitiveness in the relevant business field are presented for the first time. The ruling "Payment of 300 million won" by the plaintiff's decision was recently confirmed, which was filed against screen golf company Golf Zone by four companies, including A, which operates a member golf course, (2016 da 276467). 

"Payment of 300 million won" was recently confirmed by the ruling on the plaintiff's decision. Company A sued that the golf zone is using 3D golf course video using a comprehensive image, such as a golf course course owned and operated by them, without permission to provide it to the screen golf course since the course that golf zones use for screen images violates their copyright.