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On Children¡¯s Day, kids are saddened by famous character counterfeits and, to solve the problem KIPO crackdowns on the distribution of the counterfeits.(News Letter No. 506)

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KH

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2023-06-16

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1. On Children¡¯s Day, kids are saddened by famous character counterfeits and, to solve the problem KIPO crackdowns on the distribution of the counterfeits.

- About 25,000 counterfeits of famous domestic and overseas characters were confiscated.
- Counterfeits of children¡¯s products are unclear as to whether a human hazard test has been conducted.

Ahead of Children¡¯s Day, on May 4, 2023 KIPO published that its trademark special judicial police (hereinafter, referred to as a ¡®trademark police¡¯) executed a crackdown on a counterfeit sales site of famous characters on April 27, 2023, confiscating about 25,000 counterfeits and indicting 6 people distributing the counterfeits without detention on suspicion of violating the Korean Trademark Act.

According to the trademark police, ¡°K¡± (age: 54) was accused of selling the counterfeits of famous characters, including key rings, bracelets, mobile phone grip talks, hair pins, etc. in 6 stores including Ilwon store in Namdaemun Market, Seoul, South Korea.

The trademark police confiscated about 25,000 counterfeits of famous characters which were distributed and stored at the crackdown site.

The crackdown was conducted focusing on the counterfeits using the famous characters, such as characters in ¡°Secret Catch! Teenieping¡± and ¡°Hello Kitty¡±, etc. , the animation movies attracting a sensation to elementary schoolchildren.

The trademark police considered there would be more counterfeits distributed by them and has been investigating accurate distribution size and other crimes, etc.

< Impact of distribution of counterfeits on consumers >

The government regulates the procedures, such as safety confirmation system, etc. to make a safe environment for a child by securing the safety of a product that a child uses to prevent an accident to a child by using a product and the government enforces the relevant statues to maintain and improve child health.

However, unlike a genuine product, it is unclear whether a counterfeit undergoes the procedures such as the safety confirmation system. In this regard, since a counterfeit may be a danger to children¡¯s health and safety since it may include a harmful material or it may easily break.

Especially, when a counterfeit gift received on Children¡¯s Day may cause a problem tona child¡¯s health or may easily break, the child¡¯s feelings will be hurt.

< Future plan>

The head of the trademark special judicial police of KIPO said that they would continue on-site control to eradicate the distribution of counterfeits which are concerned with harming the health and safety of the people and that consumers also need to especially beware of purchasing counterfeits which are unclear as to whether they have undergone the required safety tests.



2. South Korea fiercely pursues the digital twin technology in the US-China competition.

- South Korea was 1st with 42.8% which is an increase rate in the number of the applications in the digital twin technology field over the last 5 years.

According to KIPO, a Korean average annual increase rate, 42.8%, over the last 5 years was recorded as 1st while the number of patent applications in the digital twin field has greatly increased. A digital twin realizes the real world¡¯s machine or equipment, object, etc. into a virtual world in a computer.

As a result of analyzing patent applications filed with the major Patent Offices (IP5: KIPO, USPTO, CNIPA, EPO and JPO), the number of the patent applications in the digital twin field over the last 10 years increased by an annual average of 16.7%, to be 4 times (from 116 in 2011 to 466 in 2020). Notably, the average annual increase rate over the last 5 years (from 2016 to 2020) reached 24.5%, showing that the technological development in this field has been accelerated.



Upon reviewing the nationalities of the applicants, US was 1st with 29.9% (700 applications) over the last 10 years (2011~2020), followed by China 2nd with 21.7% (508), Japan 3rd with 18.0% (422), and South Korea 4th with 10.4% (245). Regarding an average annual increase rate, China was 1st (37.8%), followed by South Korea (19.3%), Japan (11.2%) and US (6.5%).

However, regarding an average annual increase rate over the last 5 years (2016~2020), South Korea was 1st (42.8%), followed by China (30.0%), US (23.9%) and Japan (14.1%), indicating that South Korea has grown the fastest.



The major applicants include 1st: Strong Force (8.7%, 203 applications), 2nd: Siemens (6.6%, 155) and 3rd: Mitsubishi (3.0%, 71). US which is an IT powerhouse and Germany and Japan which is a manufacturing powerhouse are considered as leading the relevant applications.

As Korean applicants, POSCO was 12th (0.9%, 22 applications), Samsung was 36th (0.4%, 9) and Korea Electronics Technology Institute was 50th (0.3%, 6), which put their names in the top 50.



Companies (85.7%) leaded the applications in this field, followed by universities (7.2%), public institutions (3.7%) and individuals (3.4%). As for Korean applicants, companies (64.5%) filed the relevant applications, whereas, universities (13.1%), public institutions (11.4%) and individuals (11.0%) filed evenly a relatively high number of the applications, showing that these applications were widely filed by various applicants.

The head of the smart manufacturing examination team of KIPO said that Korean companies should positively start developing the digital twin-related technology and introducing a new service, to preemptively respond to the digital transformation and to secure a future manufacturing competitiveness and that KIPO would continue to provide high-quality patent examination and diverse patent information to strengthen the patent competitiveness in the digital twin field.

Patent analysis data of the digital twin field are available to anyone upon request at the patent big data center (biz.kista.re.kr/pbcenter).



3. Korean companies do well in filing patent applications related to an autonomous driving car sensor convergence technology.

- The number of patent applications related to the camera and LIDAR sensor convergence technology, which were filed in IP5, increased by an annual average of 33.6%.
- The number of the applications filed by South Korea ranked 2nd in the world¡¦Korean companies do well, including Hyundai Motors being 5th and LG being 7th, etc.

At the time point that the autonomous driving car technology is looking to Level 4 which is a fully autonomous driving, KIPO ranked 2nd in the world in the number of patent applications filed in the senser convergence field to realize the fully autonomous driving.

As a result of KIPO¡¯s analysis on the patent applications with IP5 (KIPO, USPTO, CNIPA, EPO and JPO), the number of the patent applications related to the camera and LIDAR sensor convergence technology for an autonomous driving car greatly increased with an average annual increase rate of 33.6% over the last 5 years

¡¼ Camera and LIDAR sensor convergence technology¡½

LIDAR is able to provide the accurate distance information in a 3-dimenstional space but it does not provide the accurate color or shape information like a camera.

This technology is to increase the reliability of autonomous driving by converging the camera information and LIDAR information, which have advantages and disadvantages that complement each other, and this technology is used in Level 4 or higher fully autonomous driving vehicles.



Upon reviewing the nationalities of the applicants, US was 1st with 42.3% (338 applications), followed by South Korea 2nd with 16.1% (129), then China with 14.4% (115), Israel with 10.9% (87) and Japan with 7.6% (61). South Korea¡¯s average annual increase rate by the nationality of an applicant was 40.8%, followed by China with 38.8% and US with 30.9%, showing that South Korea¡¯s increase rate in the number of the relevant applications was the sharpest.



The major applicants include: 1st was Mobileye, an Israeli company, which filed the most applications, 9.0% (72) followed by 2nd Waymo, 8.5% (68), 3rd Neuro, 7.8% (62), 4th Baidu, 6.5% (52), and 5th Hyundai Motor, 6.3% (50).

As Korean applicants, 5th was Hyundai Motor and 7th was LG, 2.0% (16) which put their names in the top 10. 17th was Samsung, 1.4% (11) and 20th was Mando, 1.1% (9), stood out.



From the type of applicants, the most applications (95.0%) in this field were filed by companies, showing that the competition among the companies to preoccupy the camera and LIDAR sensor convergence technology seems fierce. As the camera and LIDAR sensor convergence technology is developing so fast, it is expected to change our life, together with the fully autonomous driving to come soon.



4. Please apply for education of IP information search and electronic application.

- An application for the education of ¡®IP information search and electronic application¡¯ is to be received (June 7~July 7, 2023).
- An application for the ¡®IP guest education (online)¡¯ is received (May 29~June 14, 2023).

KIPO published to recruit applicants to participate in 1) an education of IP information search and electronic application and 2) IP guest education, both to progress, without fees, for future applicants of patent applications.

<1) Free education of IP information search and electronic application>

The education of IP information search and electronic application is an practice-oriented education program to progress according to the characteristics of the applicant organization(s) consisting of 5 or more people, such as school, small or medium company, public institute, etc.

The subjects to be scheduled for this education include an IP introduction, an IP information search, filing of an electronic application, etc. The participant organizations are able to select 2 subjects when applying for this education and select a desirable date for education schedule.

When the number of the participants for this education is 10 or more, an expert instructor visits the site to proceed with the education. When the applicant organization(s) wants, a non-face-to face education system can be selected. The education for a group consisting of 5~10 participants will be provided in a non-face-to-face manner.

<2) Free IP guest education>

¡®IP guest education is an online basic education program for an individual and a small company consisting of 5 people or less. The education content includes information search using KIPRIS and an electronic application using software. This education program is to be online in real time through the platform of a video-conference on June 16 (Friday).

This free education is recruiting the first 100 people to apply, and it is also scheduled in August, October and December of this year.

Details are available at KIPO website (www.kipo.go.kr) and KIPRIS website (www.kipris.or.kr). A phone inquiry is available at the application support training office in the Korea Institute of Patent Information (02-6915-1551).

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