1. Introduction of ‘AI system’ for evaluation of companies possessing excellent intellectual properties

On the 28th of May 2020, the Small and Medium Business Administration signed a business agreement for 'Activating IP financial support through joint use of KPAS' with the Korea Intellectual Property Office, Technology Guarantee Fund (KIBO), and the 4 commercial banks (KB Kookmin Bank, Shinhan Bank, Woori Bank, and Hana Bank) at the Small and Medium Business Association of Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul.

KPAS stands for Kibo Patent Appraisal System and is the first system in Korea to evaluate the value of patents numerically by linking more than 300,000 KIBO data with AI. In the future, AI (Artificial Intelligence) system will be used to select SMEs with excellent intellectual property (IP). Through this, the time and cost required for technology evaluation will be reduced, and IP companies can expect rapid support. KPAS, a patent automatic evaluation system, will be fully introduced so that support for excellent technology companies based on patents and R&D (research and development) can be activated. This system is a method by which AI calculates the grade and value of patent. If the AI-based technology evaluation system is added to the guarantee system, the technology evaluation, which conventionally took 5 million won over 3 weeks, will be greatly reduced to 1 million won over 1 week.

2. Starting to introduce Korean Discovery system

In the second half of the year, the Korean Intellectual Property Office plans to prepare an amendment to the patent law that mainly introduces the ‘Korean Discovery System' and to promote it through legislative legislation. To this end, the Korean Intellectual Property Office started to introduce pre-trial evidence disclosure systems in major foreign countries such as the United States, and a system that can effectively collect data on damages caused by patent infringement without excessive cost and time consuming, by reviewing the opinions of corporations and legal circles and integrating well with our system. KIPO autonomously plans to prepare a ’Korean Discovery System’ that fits the domestic situation by grafting measures to increase the effectiveness of the current system, such as submitting a data catalog, and 'Examination of expert evidence' in Germany and 'data catalog and data exchange' in the UK. The discovery system is a procedure in which litigants or a party to become litigants exchange various information and documents with each other to obtain and preserve information related to the lawsuit. In order to actualize the compensation for damages caused by patent infringement, it is necessary to submit data that can prove the damage, but it is difficult for the right holder to prove the damage, as the intruder holds most of the basic data for calculating damages. The discovery system is a solution to this. The United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany, which are called advanced intellectual property countries, have introduced and operated the Discovery System, and Japan is also planning to implement it.

3. [Decision] Court ruled that there is no worry of 'Cheonnokjeong' infringing the 'Cheonokjeong' trademark.

'Cheonokjeong (Punggi Specialty Products Farming Association)' filed a lawsuit against trademark infringement and a claim of 100 million won in damages against Cheonnokjeong (Korea Ginseng Corporation). However, after the first trial of the Seoul Central District Court, the second trial patent court part 22 (deputy judge Kim Kyung-ran) also considered that Cheon Ok-jeong and Cheon Nok-jeong were not similar trademarks because there was no concern for consumers to confuse them. The court first thought that the syllable “jeong” in this case could not be the main part (the necessary part, the part with central discernment). The judiciary explained, "Many companies selling red ginseng extract are conventionally adding "jeong" to the end syllables of the product names such as "Wonkijeong", "Hwangpungjeong" and "Myeongokjeong". In the end, it was an issue whether 'Cheonok' and'Cheonnok' could be seen as similar marks. The court judged that even though there is a possibility that the first and second syllables of the first syllable are similar because they are called with the same pronunciation, it is difficult to say that the title is similar enough to confuse the general consumer or trader in light of the Korean language practice where the front part of the word is pronounced strongly.

4. The United States Patent and Trademark Office ruled that artificial intelligence (AI) cannot be recognized as the inventor of a patent.

Professor Ryan Abbott's research team in the UK applied for patents in Europe, the United Kingdom, the United States, and PCT using DABUS as the inventor of the two technologies invented by AI system DABUS, for which the European and British Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) made a rejection decision in 2019 because they did not meet the inventor's requirements under current law, and recently the US Patent Office rejected the inventions for similar reasons.

With the continuous development of artificial intelligence technology, the controversy over AI's patent rights is expected to continue.

The British Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) said that this application has basic requirements for patenting, i.e. novelty, inventive step and industrial applicability, but the issue of Inventory of AI was not taken into account.

The European Patent Office (EPO) decided that DABUS did not meet the requirements of the “inventors” of Article 81 of the European Patent Treaty (EPC) and Article 19 of the Enforcement Rule (Rule) (December 2019) which specify that the inventor is a human being, not a machine.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) made a decision to reject the patent by pointing out that only natural persons can be designated as inventors in patent applications under current law.

International discussions on artificial intelligence and intellectual property policies are being promoted by the International Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and IP5.