1. Replica Medicine Not to be Licensed if Patent Right Holder Raises Objections

The Cabinet Meeting passed an amendment to the pharmaceutical affairs law relating to the ‘Drug License/Patent Linkage System’ that is to be introduced after the Korea-U.S. FTA takes effect. Thus, when a drug manufacturer files an application for license of replica medicine in this country, he should notify the patent right holder of the fact of the application (the obligation of notification) and the license is prohibited (the obligation to prevent selling) until related contestation is ended if the patent right holder raises objections. According to the amendment, the commissioner of the Korea Food and Drug Administration should review the data submitted by the patent right holder of the original drug to make a patent list and register it, once the FTA takes effect. And while the patent is still in effect, the persons who applied for the replica medicine should notify the patent right holder of the fact of application for license. Within three years after the Korea-U.S. FTA took effect, our government should additionally amend the pharmaceutical affairs law to fulfill the obligation to prevent selling. Once this system is implemented, license of the drug is prohibited until related contestation comes to an end if the patent right holder raises objections.

2. National Assembly Passes Copyright Protection Period Extension Law

   Recently the National Assembly passed an amendment to the copyright law with a vote of 198 in favor, four against, and one abstention. The conventional copyright protection period was extended 20 years to 70 years after the death of the copyright holder. A copyright protection period is a temporal limitation allowed to copyright property rights and anybody can freely make use of the literary work after the period has passed. It is estimated that the extension of the copyright protection period would have a large ripple effect on the national economy. In particular, the domestic publishing industry, in which there are lots of translations, cannot avoid a big blow because the term of payment of copyright royalties will be extended. According to the data obtained by the Copyright Examination and Coordination Committee after analyzing publication works, music works, and character works only, it was estimated that additional expenses of 7.1 billion Won would be incurred yearly for next 20 years if the copyright duration is extended 20 years.

3. Domestic LED Industry will “Make Japan’s Nichia LED Patent Invalid” … A large-scale lawsuit is prepared

    Domestic light emitting diode (LED) companies will jointly take a large-scale counterattack against patent offensives of foreign companies. They are preparing a large-scale lawsuit to cut off patent offensives at the source. The Korea LED Intellectual Property People’s Suing Group (tentative name) announced on the 31^st that they would raise a patent invalidation suit against Nichia Chemical Industry of Japan. The first target is all the patents of white LEDs that Nichia obtained in this country, and it added that it would raise an invalidation lawsuit in Japan as well. Nichia Chemical Industry is the world’s top LED companies and was involved in patent litigation with Seoul Semiconductor for more than three years since 2007.

4. KIPO Sets Up ‘International Patent Dispute Handling Center’ … Also a Task Force for Joint Action with Businesses

     Recently patent offensives by foreign companies against our companies such as Apple suing Samsung Electronics, Philips suing Seoul Semiconductor, etc. are intensifying. Such a phenomenon coincides with the results of the KIPO’s survey that the international patent lawsuits for the first half year were concentrated on our large companies and electric and electronic information and communication fields. Actually in the total 33 cases of international patent lawsuits for the first half of the year, the cases related to large companies were 26 (79%) and the cases related to electric and electronic information and communication fields were 30 (91%). Also, the companies involved pointed out our court’s inconsistent judgment standards of patent invalidation. Meanwhile, showing serious concern about the court climate of this country that is less favorable for domestic patent right holders than the court of advanced countries, the companies asked the KIPO to make and distribute clear invalidation judgment standards and take the initiative in protecting the patent right holders.

5. Patent Trend Survey Made Mandatory for National R&D Projects --- the main point of the five-year basic plan to be finalized in September

    The National Intellectual Property Committee (below NIPC) is to make and announce a ‘National Intellectual Property Basic Plan (2012~2016)’ with such a main point. The basic plan is a medium and long-term development strategy of major policies to be implemented for the next five years by the NIPC that was launched on the 28^th of the last month as a control center of national intellectual property.

     According the basic plan, the possibility of making high-quality intellectual property is to be made a priority when implementing national R&D projects in the future. It will ensure the utilization of patent information from the planning stage and this will be directly inspected. The inspection includes whether a patent trend survey was conducted in the R&D performance evaluation indicators. Such a survey is to be made mandatory.

     The NIPC plans to allocate patent trend survey expenditure in the R&D project planning budget. At present, an extra funding should be requested to the KIPO for a patent trend survey. The expenses for a patent trend survey are around 20 million won per project. It is known that advanced countries allow about 5% of the total project cost for the R&D planning budget such as patent analysis.

6. Supreme Court Rules “Sodium Chloride and Bamboo Salt (죽염) are of the same components under trademark law”

     The Supreme Court Section 3 (Justice Park Si-hwan) announced on the 7^th that it overruled the original trial that judged in favor of the plaintiff in the lawsuit in which LG Household & Health care Ltd. sued INSAN Bamboo Salt Inc. demanding cancellation of trademark registration of ‘INSAN Bamboo Salt’ that has not been used in the designated commodities for more than three years, and remanded the case to the patent court.

     The judge panel said, “The component ‘Bamboo Salt’ is not shown on the toothpaste product for which INSAN Bamboo Salt Inc. used the registered trademark but ‘sodium chloride’ is listed as a main component,” and clarified, “But the dictionary meaning of sodium chloride is salt and Bamboo Salt is a kind of processed salt, so it is deemed that the registered trademark is used in the product identical to the designated commodity ‘toothpaste containing Bamboo Salt component.”

     The judge panel pointed out, “Since the toothpaste product of INSAN Bamboo Salt Inc. does not fall under the products identical to the Bamboo Salt component toothpaste for the reason that Bamboo Salt has efficacy different from salt, the decision at the original trial is unlawful.”