1. The special police squad for trademarks under KIPO has good results in ‘controlling fakes’
The ‘special judicial police squad for trademarks’ of the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), which was established last year, had good results in controlling illegal counterfeit trademarks.
According to KIPO, 60 people were charged with a crime and 31,489 counterfeit products were confiscated by the activities of controlling the counterfeit products last year.
Among the people charged, 45 people were charged since the special judicial police squad was established in September last year, which represents 75.0% of the total number. The number of the products confiscated since the special judicial police squad was established was 28,629, which represents 90.9% of the total confiscated counterfeit products. KIPO explained that they were focused on the manufacturing factories or large-scaled distributors that specifically manufacture or distribute counterfeit products rather than the general retail businessmen that sell the counterfeit products.
KIPO plans to enhance the professionalism this year, by increasing the number of the personnel of the special judicial police squad from 19 to 23 and hiring 10 experienced people in investigation work, such as policemen. KIPO decided to newly establish an on-line exclusive investigation team to actively investigate the on-line intelligent distribution of counterfeit products.
2. KIPO supports small companies in responding to intellectual property (IP)-related disputes
KIPO announced that they would operate a ‘supportive project in connection with a dispute on international IP’ and a ‘supportive project in connection with insurance costs on IP litigation’ with a total budget of 3.6 billion Korea Won this year.
The ‘supportive project in connection with a dispute on international IP’ is to support Korean companies so as to prevent and respond to any IP-related disputes with foreign competitors. The consulting project to respond to international IP-related disputes will cover up to 80% of a maximum total dispute cost of 50,000,000 Korea Won. The consulting project to prevent international IP-related dispute will cover up to 80% of a maximum total dispute cost of 40,000,000 Korea Won.
The ‘supportive project in connection with insurance costs on IP litigation’ is that the government supports part of an insurable expense when getting the IP litigation insurance. Under the supportive project in a foreign IP litigation insurance, the government supports up to 70~80% of a maximum total insurance of 30,000,000 Korea Won. Under the supportive project in a domestic IP litigation insurance, the government supports up to 40~50% of a maximum total insurance of 1,500,000 Korea Won.
3. A Korean medium/small company filed a lawsuit of patent infringement against HTC
A Korean medium/small company filed a lawsuit of patent infringement against HTC, a worldwide smartphone manufacturer.
Insprit (CEO, Chang-seok LEE) announced that they filed the suit for prohibiting patent infringement against HTC, a global smartphone manufacturer, to prohibit the production, use and distribution of products applying the patented technology of “Control and Operation of Mobile Device Idle Screen’.
The patent for which Insprit filed the infringement suit is the technology of updating and operating internet information in real-time through the idle screen of a mobile device, such as a smartphone, smartpad, or the like. This technology is widely used in various services, such as customized information providing, location-based real-time information push, and N-screen, among others.
This technology has obtained foreign patents in US and China, among other countries, as well as the Republic of Korea. In 2005, Insprit concluded the 5-million-dollar license agreement with T Mobile of US, and in 2007, they concluded the license agreement with China Mobile, so that the worth of Insprit’s technology has been recognized at home and abroad.
Insprit will strengthen patent management focusing on their own roughly 200 technology patents in the mobile communication field. Insprit plans to expand the technical license supply based on its patents and to strongly respond to any infringement of intellectual property rights.
4. A mobile phone can be ‘wirelessly charged’
It is expected to wirelessly charge a mobile phone, MP3 or the like about 2013.
The Korean Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) announced that they had developed a ‘magnetic resonant wireless power transfer system technique’ which is capable of supplying power to a small multimedia device including a smartphone, without any wires.
As a magnetic resonance method using a resonant frequency of a magnetic field, this technique includes a resonance part to transfer power and a receiving/sending circuit part.
According to this technique, it is possible to supply power wirelessly not only to a charger as needed for each mobile device but also to home appliances, such as a computer among other devices. It is also possible to charge a plurality of devices without directly connecting them to a power source.
ETRI has filed a Korean patent application and PCT international application for the relevant technique. ETRI also completed a demonstration of applying the system to small multimedia devices.
The research team’s study on the application technology to make the receiving/sending part smaller and to increase the transfer efficiency and the countermeasure technology of the electromagnetic wave environment is in progress to expand the field to which the system is applied.
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