1. Intellectual Property Trial and Appeal Board, Revision of the patent law to introduce technical advisor system

The Korean Intellectual Property Office announced that it is promulgating a patent law amendment to provide a technical advisor system having expertise and experience in patent trial cases. In this system, external experts participate to improve the professionalism of judges. When this system is implemented, external experts are expected to judge precisely in the cases containing such as big data, 5G communication, and rechargeable batteries contents, which contribute to accurate judgment and quality improvement of the judges. Although the intellectual property trial and appeal board of Korea Intellectual Property Office is organized with experts who experienced in examinations and trials for 10 or more years, the need of external experts with experience and knowledge in advanced technology field has been steadily raised. In the case of courts, external advisors with expertise and experience participate as judges in the hearing of dispute resolution cases such as architecture, medical care, and intellectual property rights to support the hearing.

2. Product name not disclosed at the time of design application···Block exposure of newly developed product

The Korean Intellectual Property Office announced on the 31st that it will improve the secret design registration system so that companies can utilize design applications of new products as a management strategy. The secret design registration system is a system in which designs are kept confidential up to 3 years from the date of registration at the request of the applicant.

From the 1st of the following month, when the applicant applies for the secret design registration system, not only the drawings representing the design, the description of the design, but also the name of the article and the articles will not be disclosed.

After viewing market conditions, companies can strategically release designs when a new product launches. Reinforcement of protection in the secret design registration system can help companies establish design management strategies and succeed. The number of the secret design applications has been over 2,000 each year since 2016, and last year it doubled compared to 2014.

3. The Korean Intellectual Property Office "Introduction of AI into patent and design examination system“

Artificial intelligence (AI) is used for patent examination. An “AI patent/design search system” is established and promoted, in which AI automatically searches for and recommends prior documents (patents) and images (designs) that are most similar to those subject to examination. In patent examination, the use ratio of examination of foreign documents is increased by expanding the target languages ​​that AI can translate. It also builds AI learning data for recognition or processing-automation of image data. In addition, the customized patent examination policy will be expanded, thereby reflecting the characteristics of industry level or technology cycle in the examination after in-depth analysis of industry and patent trends. In addition, the target of the collective examination system is expanded to digital-convergence-technology-based services and products. Currently, only product-related intellectual property right is being examined with the collective examination system. Along with this, examination guidelines (distinguishing ability and functionality) for non-traditional marks (color, hologram, motion, three-dimensional, etc.) that are increasingly used in digital environments are also presented. Products that have a short product lifespan and are easy to imitate through online are included in the subject of partial examination to support rapid rightsization. Its range will be expanded from three categories, including clothing and office supplies, to 7 categories including food and packaging this year.

4. Supreme Court "Acknowledged infringement of rights in the use of trademarks similar to registered trademarks“

To the trademark infringement lawsuit(On the 18th, Mr. A filed a lawsuit against Company B, saying, "Please prohibit trademark infringement."), Supreme Court en banc (Chief Judge Ki-taek Lee) overturned the original decision that had have the consensus opinion of all judges and had decided in favor of the plaintiff, and returned the case to the Patent Court.

A Supreme Court ruled that if a trademark similar to a registered trademark was registered and used, even if the trademark was used before the trademark was invalid was finalized, the Supreme Court ruled that it would constitute an infringement of the rights of the pre-registered trademark. The Supreme Court ruled that "if a trademark right holder registered a trademark that is identical or similar to another person's registered trademark before the date of filing and registration of the trademark and used it without the consent of the previous trademark holder, the active effect of the subsequent applied-registered trademark is limited. He said “Regardless of whether the trial decision for invalidation of registration for a subsequent applied-registered trademark, infringement of the registered trademark right for the prior(earlier) applied-registered trademark is established. Basically, the Trademark Act prioritizes the rights that have previously been filed or occurred between conflicting intellectual property rights". In addition, he added, "Until a trial decision to invalidate the subsequent applied-registered trademark is confirmed, all cases of the Supreme Court that have judged that the prior(earlier) applied-registered trademark will not be infringed will be changed". Existing Supreme Court precedents have ruled that all trademarks registered under the Trademark Act must be protected until they are invalidated or cancelled.