1.  ECJ’s judgment on Bioengineering Patent

The Europe Court of Justice (ECJ), which is the highest court of the Europe Union, made a judgment on the effective range of bioengineering patent rights as a district court of The Hague of the Netherlands had requested the ECJ for an interpretation regarding the effect of patent rights in September 2008. Through the judgment on July 6, 2010, the ECJ ruled that the effect of the patent rights of DNA molecules that convey genetic information of an organism could extend to organisms or their seeds obtained from the genes but not to the processed products, thereby exerting a great influence on future law interpretation in countries of the world.

2.  Alternative for Preventing Infringement by Big Business on Intellectual Property Rights of Small and Medium Businesses

The voice that the intellectual property rights of small and medium businesses should be protected by law in order to establish fair transactions between big and small-and-medium businesses in the Republic of Korea is becoming loud. In this country, when a big business is dealing with a small or medium business, the former frequently requests the latter to share the patent, which is the intellectual property right of the small or medium business, so that the negotiation power of the small or medium business drops significantly.

3.  KIPO to Lead “Internationalization” of Design Protection

The Korean Intellectual Property Office announced on 2^nd that it would introduce the international design application systems of the “Hague System” and the “Locarno Classification System” by 2012 for internationalization of the design protection system. The Hague System is an international agreement for giving an effect of having applied to many countries at once if one application is filed with the WIPO. If this country subscribes to this agreement, it is expected possible to obtain design rights from foreign countries more easily. And by introducing the Locarno Classification System, which is an international classification system of industrial designs, also for domestic design patents, this country’s design goods classification system will be in unity with the international standards.

4.  Language School not Allowed to Register “Toeplus” as a Trademark

In the Supreme Court trial (2008Hu2510) of the registration invalidation claim suit filed by the Educational Testing Service of America against P Language School of this country that is using the trademark “Toeplus,” the original verdict that was decided in favor of the plaintiff was confirmed recently. The Supreme Court ruled that the trademark should not be used because the “Toeplus” that the Language School of this country is using is similar to such an extent that it could cause confusion with the English test “Toefl” of America.

5.  “The Anchor Figure of the Navy can be Used as a Trademark”

The Supreme Court ruled that “the exclusive use of the trademark cannot be concluded unreasonable against the plaintiff’s contention that the trademark registration should be invalidated, saying the anchor figure at the time of trademark registration was known merely as a map symbol showing a port, so it is difficult to deem that it was recognized to have a special relation with the Navy,” and remanded the case to the Patent Court.