1. Material patent and commodity information to be laid open

The KIPO will lay open the information on the materials that are to have their patent right expire in 2014 in order to make research and development more efficient, improve patent dispute response capability and create jobs.

What are to be laid open are 258 material patents which are soon to expire such as medicine and medical supplies, biological products, chemical materials and agricultural pesticides. The medical industry accounted for the most with 47.3% (122 patents), followed by the bio-industry 26.0% (67 patents), chemical materials 17.4% (45 patents), and agricultural pesticides 7.0% (18 patents).

Commodity information includes items related to patent information such as abstracts and representative claims of the materials whose patents are soon to expire, the expiration dates of the duration of patent right, and patent disputes, and product information items such as active component structural formulas, uses, commodity names, and dates of permission.

2. Patent trolls that excessively raise lawsuits for intellectual property rights will be regulated from next year

Noh Dae-lae, chairman of the Fair Trade Commission said that he would implement a scheme for regulating behaviors detrimental to market competition from next year in order to reduce the negative impact of NPEs abusing intellectual property rights.

An NPE refers to an enterprise which bought intellectual property rights or patent rights without any manufacturing activity or technological development and resells them later. They have a positive function of buying inventions and patents of small-and-medium businesses or individuals and thereby inducing capitalization, but they are also notorious for indiscriminately suing companies that infringe on the patent rights they own.

The Fair Trade Commission will prepare a regulation for defining an NPE in the examination guidelines of improper exercise of intellectual property rights for fair trade law and add specific abuses of authority by the NPEs.

3. Starbucks ‘Double Shot’ may not be used exclusively

The Seoul High Court Civil Action Department 5 ruled “Double Shot is not deemed to be a Starbucks’ trademark right” in the trial of appeal relating to a trademark infringement suit which Starbucks Coffee Company raised against Namyang Dairy Products Company.

The side of Namyang Dairy Products explained that since Double Shot is a technical expression meaning coffee with a concentration two or more times higher than ordinary coffee it was judged difficult to deem it as a trademark.

Starbucks has been selling a canned coffee product called Starbucks Double Shot through Dongsuh Food since 2006. With the release of a product named French Café Double Shot by Namyang Dairy in May last year, litigation regarding trademark rights of the product name started between the two companies.

4. The last in OECD in technology exports

Our technical trade balance is in chronic red as exports are less than half of imports. Last year our technical exports were just 5.3 billion dollars in contrast to 11 billion dollars for imports.

According to the Technical Trade Statistical Reports 2012 published on 29thbytheMinistryofScience,ICTandFuturePlanning,ourtechnicaltradevolumeincreased17.4%from13,930milliondollarsin2011to16,360milliondollarsin2012.

The ratio of R&D investments to GDP recorded second in the world with 4.03%, but technical competitiveness recorded the very bottom among the major OECD countries.

5. KIPO will shorten the patent examination processing period to 11.7 months this year

The KIPO will shorten the patent examination processing period from 13.2 months in 2013 to 11.7 months, that is, about 45 days, this year so that people’s creative ideas become rights as early as possible.

From this month on, a preliminary examination will be introduced to conduct an interview with the applicant before patent examination. As for the application without an attorney, positive examination will be strengthened throughout the whole process of examination such as showing how to amend for the reason of rejection. Also, a lump-sum examination system will be introduced whereby patent, utility model, trademark and design applications are examined in a lump-sum in a preferred time adjusted to the release of a new product.

The countries to benefit from the patent examination highway will be expanded to 21 countries this year from 14 countries last year.

6. Technically innovative enterprise to have the lending interest rate cut by maximum 3%

A benefit of a maximum of a 3% cut of lending interest rates will be provided to enterprises with a BB or higher in technological business evaluation grade among technically innovative small-and-medium businesses. Especially in the case that the technological business evaluation grade is higher than the risk rating, the interest cut will be greater. This system is a result of an agreement between local banks and the Korean Technology Finance Corporation. It is a support project whereby a certain portion of the lending interest rate is reserved for credit loans based on the technical evaluation authentication certificate.

The limit of support is within a credit loan amount of 5 hundred million won per business, and if the limit of guarantee exceeds 3 billion won, it is within 3 hundred million won. It is for a general fund loan in an operating fund, and the maintenance period is one year. According to the technical business evaluation grade and the risk rating standard, the lending interest rate is to be cut by 1 to 3%.