1. KIPO prepares ‘Bio field examination criteria’ for each stage of life information flow.

Since patent applications in the bio field are targeting living organisms, there are difficulties having to go through special procedures such as the patent microbial deposit system and the sequence list submission system, as well as considering ethical aspects when filing a patent application.

In line with the trend of application and development of the bio industry in convergence with new technologies in other fields, the number of patent applications of not only the 'Crisper gene scissors' technology, but also the re-creation of drugs using the Corona 19 diagnostic kit and artificial intelligence (AI), which are major technologies in Korea's K-defense, continues to increase.

Accordingly, the domestic industry has demanded the establishment of new patent examination standards reflecting the changes and specificity of the bio field technology environment. Reflecting these industry demands, this “Bio Field Patent Examination Practice Guide” presented examination criteria for each stage of the flow of life information such as nucleic acids, proteins, cells, etc., which are the main basic components of living organisms, so that the patent applicant can easily use them.

2. If a trademark or design is intentionally infringed, compensation shall be made up to three times the amount of damage.

The Korean Intellectual Property Office announced that amendments to the Intellectual Property Protection Act such as the Trademark Act and the Design Protection Act were promulgated and implemented on October 20th. In the event of intentional infringement of trademark or design rights, a punishment compensation system is implemented, in which a maximum of three times the amount recognized as damage is compensated.

It is to expand the punitive damage compensation system for infringement of patents and trade secrets introduced in the 2018 Patent Law and Unfair Competition Prevention Act to the fields of trademarks and designs.

The standard for calculating the amount of damage caused by royalties when trademark and design rights are infringed has been revised from 'normally acceptable amount' to 'reasonably acceptable amount'. It was pointed out that the calculation of the actual amount of damage was insufficient, as the amount normally received was judged by the royalties generally recognized in the trading industry.

In 2011, the maximum limit of the legal damage compensation system introduced in the Trademark Act was raised from 50 million won to 100 million won (300 million won in case of intentional infringement).

An amendment to the patent law was also promulgated that would allow punishment for infringing patent rights without a victim's complaint. In the future, patent holders will be able to file a criminal complaint without being bound by the complaint period (6 months).

3. 50% reduction in fees for patent applications after joint research with SMEs will be implemented.

As a plan to revitalize the research activities of SMEs, if large companies, mid-sized companies, and public research institutes file a patent application for joint research (R&D) results with SMEs, 50% of the application fee, examination fee, and establishment registration fee will be reduced.

The Korean Intellectual Property Office announced a legislative amendment to the 'rules for collection of patent fees, etc.' According to the amendment, the filing fee paid when electronically filing a patent application for research results such as papers written with commercial software such as PDF and HWP as a temporary specification similar to the US provisional application system will be lowered to the same level as that of regular electronic filings using software. Recently, there has been a case of abusing the fact that the additional fees borne by foreign companies for filing multiple inventions in one international application are low. Therefore, in case of violating the requirements for unity of the invention, additional fees are charged at the same level as the overseas patent offices.

4. “Jalpulli-neun-Jib” and “Bibigo” were selected as beautiful Korean trademarks.

The korean Intellectual Property Office announced on October 7 that it had held the 5th Korean Excellent Trademark Selection Contest on the 574th Hangeul Day of Hunminjeongeum distribution. This competition was designed to encourage the application and use of beautiful Korean trademarks amid the flooding of foreign language trademarks or indiscriminate digital abbreviations and slang throughout the society.

“Jalpulli-neun-Jib” was selected as a beautiful trademark awarded by the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism. “Bibigo” was selected as the pretty trademark awarded by the Intellectual Property Office Minister. In addition, “Meo-ri-e-Bom”, “Jayeon-Hanleaf”, “Dimchae”, ‘Teumteum-e’, ‘Bala-bala’, and ‘Bichi-ye-peun-woori-jib’ were selected for the trademarks awarded by the National Institute of the Korean Language.

A total of 40 applied trademarks were subject to the KIPO requirements, and the winning works were confirmed by summing up the examination by Korean language experts recommended by the National Institute of the Korean Language and voting by patent customers and examiners.