1. Loans secured against patents to be implemented in the second half of next year

 

The Small & Medium Business Administration announced on the 4^th that loans secured against patents (tentatively called) for giving a loan against an intellectual property right such as a patent will be implemented in the second half of next year.  This is to provide for the growth of small and medium venture businesses which have an idea or technology but do not have collateral.  This is expected to contribute to the spread of respect for intellectual property and a change in recognition of intellectual property of small and medium businesses.

 

The law relating to collateral such as movable assets and bonds (movable asset security law) was amended last June to provide an institutional basis.  The main point of the amendment is that not only machinery, inventory assets and agricultural and livestock products but also patents are included in the movable assets for establishment of security.  The governmental loans secured against patents are provided for the rights of utility models and designs as well as patents.

 

 

2. Patent application in Europe to be simplified for Koreans and the period it takes is also to be reduced by a great deal

 

The KIPO announced on the 5^th that its Commissioner Ho-won Kim had a meeting of Korean and European patent office heads with the President of the European Patent Office Benua Battistelli on the 3^rd at Munich, Germany and signed an agreement for business cooperation to simplify the requirements for document submission when Koreans make patent applications in the European Patent Office.

 

Thanks to the agreement, the burdens of Korean businesses or individuals will be lightened by a great deal in patent application in Europe because the KIPO will take the responsibility of submitting the results of a prior art survey to the European Patent Office on behalf of the Korean applicant.

 

The two offices agreed that Korean patent information service companies as well as the KIPO may utilize the vast patent information owned by the European Patent Office.

 

 

3. EU to introduce a unitary patent system in early 2014

 

The European Union (EU) is to introduce a unitary patent system for the first time by early 2014.

 

According to foreign news agencies including the Bloomberg Communication, the European Parliament voted on the 11^th (local time) at Strasbourg, France, to pass three proposals of patent systems to be introduced in 25 countries (excluding Italy and Spain) of the 27 EU countries.  The countries raised an objection in the Court of Justice of the European Union to recognizing English, French, and German as official languages but had the objection dismissed. 

 

As the unitary patent system is to be introduced in the EU in the 40^th year since the start of discussion, it is expected that patent application costs be reduced by a great deal and the procedures of patent application and registration and dispute resolution be simplified.  The unitary patent system will contribute to the EU economy and bring benefits especially to the small and medium business of Europe.

 

 

4. China ranks first in the number of patents, followed by America, Japan and Korea

 

The WIPO announced on the 11^th (local time) in the World Intellectual Property Index 2012 report that China recorded first rank for the first time in history last year with 526,412 patents (accounting for 1/4 of the total of world patents).  America, which has been the top since 2006, was beaten by China with 503,582 patents.  Japan ranked third with 342,610 patents and Korea fourth with 178,924 patents.  By field, Japan was top in the patent application for solar cell and fuel cell technologies, and Germany and America were overwhelming in the number of patent applications related to geothermal heat and wind power energy.

 

 

5. Korea and Japan will cooperate for prevention of international patent disputes and examination of patents

 

The KIPO and the JPO will have the 24^th Korea-Japan talks between the patent office heads of the two countries to expand the common prior art survey project for patent applications common to the two countries that the examiners of the two countries have implemented in the two technical fields every year since 2000 to four years to seek harmony in patent examination work.  The expansion of the common prior art survey project will contribute to reducing the discrepancy in examination results coming from the differences in the system and practices related to patent examination in Korea and Japan.

 

In addition, they agreed to jointly study the operation status and results of the Korea-Japan patent examination highway (PPH) that has been in operation since 2007 and make a joint announcement of an international activation scheme in the multilateral PPH (23 countries) that is to be held next year and lead discussions on the related international order.

 

 

6. Supreme Court rules the trademark of ‘Georgia’ Coffee may not be registered and the trademark of ‘삼선 무늬 (Samsun Mooni)’ of Adidas may be registered

 

The Supreme Court Section 1 (Chief Judge: Justice Byong-dae Park) ruled that the original decision, that ‘조지아 (Georgia)’ or ‘GEORGIA’ has no identifiability as a trademark as it is no more than a geographical name referring to the Georgia state of the U. S. A. or Grugia of the old Soviet Union, is proper. 

 

In contrast to this, the unanimity committee (Chief Judge: Justice Chang-soo Yang) of the Supreme Court explained on the day the reason for judgment, saying, the well-known sport brand Adidas “can be a trademark if the commodity can be identifiable since each or the combination of the symbol, character and figure makes a certain form or shape and the form or shape is attached to a specific position; even if the procedures for a position trademark are not provided, the position trademark can be acknowledged.”

 

Regarding the trademark registration of ‘삼선 (Samsun) Shirts’, the court ruled, “the original trial misunderstood the principle of law for the judgment of the identifiability of the trademark,” saying, “the longitudinal stripes in the side portion of the top are a position trademark and have identifiability.”