Young-min Kim
Updates
Intellectual Property
Patent Court takes issue with ex officio examination of trial request validity
South Korea | 25 January 2021If an invention subject to confirmation is identical to a later-registered patent, a request for a scope confirmation trial will be considered improper as this could result in the later-registered patent's validity being denied without it being subject to an invalidity trial. However, the Patent Court recently ruled that if the IP Trial and Appeal Board ex officio dismisses a scope confirmation trial for this reason but fails to give the parties an opportunity to submit an opinion, such decision would be a procedural violation.
Doctrine of equivalents: recent developments
South Korea | 11 January 2021According to the doctrine of equivalents, even when an accused invention includes a modified element in contrast with the elements in the patented claim, if they are practically equivalent, the accused invention infringes the patented invention. Despite court rulings which make it possible for patents to be protected according to the real value of the invention, there is arguably increased uncertainty about the possibility for equivalent infringement.
Considerations when establishing South Korean patent portfolios
South Korea | 09 November 2020This article compares the patent registration rates by technology field in South Korea with the other IP5 jurisdictions (ie, the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the European Patent Office, the Japan Patent Office and the State Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China) and also looks at the systems which may be used to establish a patent portfolio, with a comparison with the United States in particular.
Patentee protection strengthened in series of revisions to patent law
South Korea | 28 September 2020In South Korea, the low amount of damages awarded by the courts in patent infringement cases has long been criticised. To address this, a treble damages system (implemented in July 2019) and an improved method for calculating the amount of damages (to be implemented on 10 December 2020) have been introduced. This article looks at these changes in detail, as well as a proposed law revision to improve evidence collection.
