News letter November, 2013 관리자 │ 2013-10-31 HIT 6682 |
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1. “Europe trademark information search to become easier – KIPO signs MOU with OHIM The
Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) announced on the 26th
that it signed an MOU with OHIM at Geneva, Switzerland, to exchange the two
agencies’ databases of recent trademark information and open them to civilians
at no charges. With the signing of the MOU,
companies can check in real time beginning in October, through KIPRIS, which is
a domestic intellectual property right information search site, the
weekly-updated information as well as past information because the service in
the Korean language is provided in TMclass, which is a trademark classification
information search site of OHIM of Europe as well as in TMview, which is a
trademark information search site. Since
a trademark can be registered after prior investigation into the trademark
thanks to the MOU, the number of damage cases is expected to decrease. 2. Streamlining patent lawsuits in Europe to be delayed – Domestic businesses should pay attention to the period of formal objection According
to the European business community of intellectual property (IP), the
enforcement of UPC that concentrates on the European patent dispute settlement
jurisdiction (court) will be delayed at least one to two years from the originally
agreed January next year. This is
because they agreed on a large section of the UPC but the decision on the
details of implementation and the period of ratification by respective European
countries were delayed. Unlike the
current law in which the courts responsible for patent dispute settlement are
different between countries, the UPC is a system in which the UPC court rules
on patent infringement and validation so as to be effective all over
Europe. If judgment on patent
infringement is made in one country, patent infringement is acknowledged also
in all of the 25 countries which agreed on the UPC. Therefore, it has an advantage that companies
that do business in Europe can save time and expenses. 3. Supreme Court rules “using an English + Hangul trademark should be regarded as using the same trademark to refer to the same name and idea even if the English trademark or Hangul trademark only was initially used The
Supreme Court panel of judges (Chief Judge: Justice Park Bo-young) ruled on the
eighth in the registration cancellation lawsuit filed by Corporation A against
Company B that although the appearances are different, the name and idea are
the same, and the trademark was used to mean the same so it overturned the
original decision against the plaintiff and remanded the case to the patent
court. The decision by the Supreme Court
panel of judges is that a trial for the cancellation of trademark registration
that is not used cannot proceed on the Hangul trademark even though only
English “CONTINENTAL” was used without using Hangul “콘티넨탈”
for more than three years previous. It
is noteworthy that the ruling changed the precedent Supreme Court decision in
which it was deemed that a cancellation request could be made for a trademark
part not used if either side only was used for three years because of different
appearances between English and Hangul trademarks. 4. Fair Trade Commission to regulate foreign patent trolls, 50 or so of which are active and harming domestic enterprises The
Fair Trade Commission is trying to regulate “Patent Trolls” (firms dedicated to
managing patents) which demand excessive patent fees from Korean
enterprises. Korean companies have been
targeted by patent trolls since 2008 to the end of May this year with a total
of 556 lawsuits. Currently, more than 50 foreign patent trolls are active, and
more than 500 Korean firms were sued by these patent trolls in recent five
years. The patent trolls which filed the
most lawsuits against Korean enterprises are American Vehicular Sciences (33
cases), Golden Bridge Technology (19 cases), Industrial Technology Research
Institute (15 cases), Beacon Navigation (12 cases), and so forth. 5. A group who siphoned off the high technology for coating ceramics of their past workplace to set up a company in China was prosecuted The
Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency International Crime Investigation Team
announced on the 11th that they imprisoned a former officer B (age
49) of Company A on a charge of siphoning off to foreign and domestic companies
a product manufacturing technology whereby ceramic layers are made on the
surfaces of electronic products and kitchen utensils that require heat
conductivity and durability (in violation of the law relating to leakage
prevention and protection of industrial technology) and put two persons
including C (age 45) on the wanted list.
According to police, three persons including B are suspected of
accessing the internal computer network of Company A for which they worked
since June 2011 and siphoned off the manufacturing technology of the raw material
of ceramic coatings and blending ratio thereof.
It was found by investigation that they set up a local production
corporation of a joint venture with a Chinese company which imported products
from Company A beginning from a month after joining the company in July 2011
and left the company sequentially from February 2012. 6. On-and-off taxation on the brand usage fee confuses group holding companies |
이전글 | News letter October, 2013 |
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다음글 | Newsletter December, 2013 |