1. US USTR designates China and Russia as priority monitoring countries for intellectual property rights

Catherine Tye, the US Trade Representative (USTR), released an annual report on the status of intellectual property protection in the 'Special Section 301 Report for 2022' and announced 7 countries as priority monitoring countries: China, Russia, Argentina, Chile, India, Indonesia, and Venezuela.

The USTR said, "We have been closely monitoring whether China is implementing the first phase of the U.S.-China trade agreement. Last year, China revised its patent law, copyright law, and criminal law, and took measures to protect intellectual property rights, but it is still insufficient." Twenty countries including Canada, Brazil, Vietnam, Thailand, Mexico, Turkey and Uzbekistan were included in the monitoring target countries, one level lower. Korea did not belong anywhere. Meanwhile, Ukraine, which was designated as a priority monitoring country last year, has been delayed due to a Russian invasion this year. Ukraine was included in the highest priority list last year due to the use of illegal software and insufficient protection of online intellectual property rights.

Catherine Ty said that "Intellectual property-intensive industries provide 60 million jobs, and we must strongly protect these industries abroad" and "The Biden administration will continue to engage to protect our workers and industries".

2. Investigation is possible without a complaint from the victim of infringement of design rights and utility model rights

The Korean Intellectual Property Office announced on the 30th that the amendment bill to the Design Protection Act and Utility Model Act, which aims to enable investigations into design and utility model rights infringements without complaints from victims, from next month, has recently passed the plenary session of the National Assembly. This revision of the law expands the amendments to the Patent Act, which changed the 2020 patent infringement crime from 'criminal indictment' to 'non-intentional punishment,' to include design rights and utility model rights.

The amended law will be promulgated after a cabinet meeting to be held next month, and will be implemented at the same time.

In the past, infringement of design rights or utility model rights was defined as a criminal complaint that the victim had to file a complaint within six months of becoming aware of the culprit.

As the crime of non-intentional punishment was changed, the investigative agency proceeded with the investigation even if there was no complaint from the right holder.

3. Suwon District Court establishes an exclusive intellectual property division… "Improvement of expertise in technology leak cases"

As national awareness of technology leaks increases, the courts are also working to improve the professionalism of judgments.

The need for a court exclusively for intellectual property rights in the Suwon District Court has been continuously raised by prosecutors, lawyers, and companies. This is because there are many companies with advanced technologies such as Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Motor Company Namyang Research Center, SK Hynix, Naver, Pangyo Techno Valley, and Gwanggyo Techno Valley. The Suwon District Prosecutor's Office, a counter partner of the Suwon District Law, was designated as a high-tech industry protection key public prosecutor's office in March 2018 in consideration of regional characteristics and launched a high-tech industry protection investigation team. As the investigation power was concentrated, the number of cases of violation of the Industrial Technology Leak Prevention Protection Act that the Suwon District Prosecutor's Office handed over to trial in 2016 was only '0', but 6 cases in 2017, 22 cases in 2018, 11 cases in 2019, and 10 cases in 2020. It has emerged as the competent authority to prosecute the most cases of technology leaks.

In the legal world, there is an expectation that the specialization of technology leak cases will increase with the establishment of a dedicated court, while the trial will proceed more quickly. In addition, it is expected that differences in sentencing between courts will be resolved.

4. Last year’s intellectual property trade deficit, the lowest in history

Last year, Korea's intellectual property trade balance recorded a deficit of 30 million dollars (about 36.5 billion won).

According to the '2021 intellectual property trade balance (provisional)' of the Bank of Korea, industrial property rights (-2.21 billion dollars) showed a deficit, while copyrights (2.45 billion dollars) showed a surplus. Industrial property rights showed a deficit mainly in patents and utility model rights ($1.24 billion). For copyright, both R&D and software copyrights ($1.7 billion) and cultural arts copyrights ($750 million) recorded a surplus.

By institution, large domestic corporations recorded a surplus of $3.56 billion and domestic small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) recorded a surplus of $410 million, while foreign-invested conglomerates recorded a surplus of $20 million. On the other hand, foreign-invested small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) recorded a loss of -408 billion dollars.

By industry, the manufacturing sector (US$1.17 billion) recorded a surplus centering on automobiles, trailers, and electrical and electronic products, while the service sector (US$1.13 billion) recorded a loss centered on the information and communication industry. However, the deficit narrowed compared to the previous year.