1. Intellectual Property Comprehensive Index Korea ranks 12th in the world, 2nd in the world for patents in the Intellectual Property Index, and 3rd in the world for trademark rights

According to the 'Science Technology & ICT Policy and Technology Trend' report by the Ministry of Science and ICT, the United States took first place with a score of 95.48 in the '2022 International Intellectual Property Index Index' announced by the Global Innovation Policy Center (GIPC) under the American Chamber of Commerce and Industry. UK (94.14 points) in second place, Germany (92.46 points) in third place, Sweden (92.14 points) in fourth place, France (92.10 points) in fifth place, and Taiwan in sixth place (91.67 points). 12th Korea (83.94 points) ranked 12th.

Among the 55 countries and economic systems analyzed, Singapore ranked first with a score of 97.22, and ranked second with the United States, Japan and Switzerland with a score of 94.44. The United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Sweden and Taiwan are tied for sixth place with a score of 91.67.

In the trademark category, the United States and the United Kingdom jointly took first place with 100 points, and Korea ranked third with 93.75 points. Germany, France, Japan, Switzerland and the Netherlands scored in the 80s. Singapore scored only 75 points in the trademark category.

Korea received good evaluations in patents, trademarks, and system efficiency, but received relatively low scores in areas such as design rights, trade secrets, commercialization of intellectual property assets, and international treaty accession and ratification.

GIPC evaluated that the revision of the Korean Unfair Competition Prevention and Trade Secret Protection Act strengthened the basis for compensation for patent and trade secret infringement.

2. Easing the requirements for recovering intellectual property rights of the Korean Intellectual Property Office… Active administration part

The Korean Intellectual Property Office announced that by amending the Patent Act, Trademark Act, and Design Protection Act, the requirements for recovering intellectual property rights will be eased from the existing ‘non-responsible cause’ to ‘just cause’ and will be implemented from the 20th.

As in this case, in the case where the procedure for application, registration, examination, and trial of a patent, utility model, trademark, or design right is suspended after a period of time has elapsed due to an incident that occurred on the agent’s side, not the principal, in the past, ‘reasonable responsibility’ It was impossible to recover the right because it did not apply, but from now on, it can be a 'just cause', so if certain conditions are met, it will be possible to recover the right.

'Cases for reviewing rights recovery' classifies the types of rights recovery into three categories, △natural disaster, △artificial negligence, and △other cases, and focuses on specific cases.

A separate application system was newly introduced in which only registered claims are separately filed even if the rejection is maintained (rejection decision) in the trial against the decision of rejection. In addition, the period for requesting a trial against the decision of refusal has been increased from 30 days to three months, allowing sufficient preparation for the trial and minimizing unnecessary extension of the period.

If the patent expires due to the elapse of the period of submission of documents and payment of fees, the requirements for patent recovery have been relaxed from 'reasonable cause' to 'just cause'.

3. The Korean Intellectual Property Office's technical police expands the right to investigate trade secret infringement

This year marks the 12th anniversary of the establishment of the special envoy of the Korean Intellectual Property Office. Patent, trade secret, and design infringement investigations, which started on a limited basis in 2019, have been investigated in 476 cases as of November 2021 and only 888 people have been prosecuted. However, since the technology leak or infringement investigation began in December of last year, it worked with the Daejeon District Prosecutor's Office and the National Intelligence Service to block 100 billion won worth of cutting-edge technology related to semiconductor and display production equipment from being leaked overseas. For this reason, it is even more urgent for the Korean Intellectual Property Office to promote the expansion of the special police investigation authority. An official from the Daejeon District Prosecutor's Office said, "Through the seizure, search and reinforcement investigation, the two main culprits were arrested and prosecuted and five people including the employee of the victim company and the representative of a partner company were prosecuted without detention." As for the first case, the professional investigative power was a big help,” he said.

The scope of the special envoy's duties promoted by the Korean Intellectual Property Office is broadly divided into four categories: △ Violation of the Industrial Technology Protection Act △ Breach of business △ Crimes adjacent to technology infringement such as theft △ Penalties other than infringement included in the Patent Act. It is also planning to increase the number of base offices to expand the investigative power. Plans are also being considered to expand the three offices in Seoul, Daejeon, and Busan across the country. In order to protect technology leakage and strengthen pre-executive power, it plans to establish a planned investigation system based on intelligence. While responding to sophisticated technological crimes, plans to expand digital and cyber investigative capabilities are also in place.

4. The largest number of European patent applications filed by Samsung & LG

Last year, Samsung and LG applied for a total of 6,000 patents with the European Patent Office (EPO). It ranked second and third respectively, beating out global companies such as Ericsson and Qualcomm.

According to the '2021 Patent Index' announced by EPO on the 5th, Samsung applied for a total of 3439 patents last year, ranking second in the overall ranking. Samsung ranked first in 2020, but fell to second place last year, losing to Huawei (3544).

LG applied for 2,422 patents last year and maintained the same position as in 2020. It was followed by Ericsson (1884), Siemens (1720), Raytheon Technologies (1623), Qualcomm (1534), and Sony (1465).

In addition, among Korean companies applying for EPO patents, KT&G (233), POSCO (168), SK (138), Hyundai Motor (84), and CJ CheilJedang (73) were ranked.