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For the 578th Korean Alphabet Day (“Hangeul” Day), let’s together keep the beautiful Hangeul font.(News Letter No. 537) |
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KH |
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2024-10-02 |
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1603 |
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1. For the 578th Korean Alphabet Day (“Hangeul” Day), let’s together keep the beautiful Hangeul font.
- A presentation (seminar) was held to listen to industry voices in line with environmental changes of a Hangel font design (September 25, 2024).
- The seminar on the subject of the font design was presented by Professor Yongjea LEE of Kaywon University of Art and Design.
According to KIPO, a ‘2024 presentation (seminar) for communication with the font design industry and KIPO’ was held to find, utilize and protect a font design with the beauty and value of Hangeul.
Font Design:
Fonts mean the looks of letters and symbols (Hangeul, English, number, specific symbols, Chinese characters, etc.) which are made up of shapes with common characteristics to be used for recording, displaying, printing, etc. and the fonts are independently protected under the Design Protection Act. The number of applications for font designs increased by an annual average of 16.5% over the last 5 years (2019~2023), i.e., 106 in 2019, 139 in 2020, 182 in 2021, 195 in 2022 and 195 in 2023, showing high market demand for font designs.
Celebrating the 578th Hangeul Day, the presentation (seminar) was for the first time arranged to increase understanding of production, distribution and use environments of changing font designs and to positively listen to voices from the font design industry. A total of 40 people including KIPO design examiners, and the font design industrial and academic officials participated in the presentation (seminar).
In the presentation (seminar), KIPO introduced the font design examination cases and the relevant application trends to the industrial and academic font design officials. Then, Professor Yongjea LEE of Department of Visual Design of Kaywon University of Art and Design presented the subject, “where does creativity of font designs appear?”. This presentation (seminar) was expected to be an opportunity of looking at the creation and theft of a font design, the creation of AI, the trends of new font designs and to seek the relevant design protection measures.
In a meeting, KIPO also listened to opinions on the font design application and registration processes and difficulties in case of infringement.
2. KIPO hired 60 patent examiners in the fields of bio, advanced robot and AI.
- Experts of bio, advanced robot, AI protect a national strategic technology with ‘patent examination’.
KIPO announced to hire a total of 60 professional fixed-term patent examiners (corresponding 새 level 5) in the three fields of bio (35), advanced robot (16) and AI (9), to strengthen patent competitiveness of Korean companies in the national strategic technology fields. It is expected that Korea companies will be able to rapidly secure patents in the bio, advanced robot and AI fields, following the semiconductor field (March 2023 and January 2024) and the secondary battery field (June and August 2024) that have completed the recruitment of examiners.
The total number of the patent applications filed over the last 5 years increased by an annual average of 2.3%, whereas, the number of the patent applications filed in the bio, advanced robot and AI fields (which are the national strategical technologies in which major countries are competing fiercely to dominate key technologies) rapidly increased by 8.4%, showing that competition to secure core patents among the world’s leading companies is intensifying. Accordingly, speedy and accurate patent examination is of the utmost importance for Korean companies to secure technological competitive edge.
From the first half of this year, KIPO began consultations with related ministries to increase the number of examiners in the bio, advanced robot and AI fields and completed the increase in staffing and budget negotiations in August, thereby proceeding with this hiring.
The total number of employees is 60, who are hired in the 10 detailed fields: ▲ bio-based technology, ▲ bio-diagnostics and analysis technology, ▲ biopharmaceutical technology, ▲ healthcare medical device technology, ▲ healthcare data analysis technology, ▲ robot instrument design technology, ▲ interface technology, ▲robot control technology, ▲ machine learning technology, ▲ cognitive processing technology.
Anyone that has a degree and experience relating to a job field to be appointed can apply and work experience in the relevant job field is preferred.
Since a highly experienced private sector person with technical expertise and field experience in the relevant field is hired as a patent examiner, the recruitment of a professional fixed-term patent examiner is to significantly shorten the patent examination period so that Korean companies are supported to rapidly secure rights and to prevent core technology leaks due to overseas transfer of Korean professional manpower.
3. KIPO published a contract writing guide for Korea-US international collaborative research.
- The guide has been published to provide points to note when signing contracts for practitioners.
- The guide adds various contract examples and adds analysis and explanation of contract terms.
- The guide is available by downloading from KIPO website.
According to KIPO, a contract writing guide for Korea-US international collaborative research has been published.
The guide has been published to provide assistance to a researcher in drafting a contract in the situation of increasing demand for international collaborative research or cooperative research and development with an excellent overseas research and development institution. Since the guide adds various actual contract cases and the analysis and explanation of contract terms to which a researcher may refer, the researcher can choose the contract wording which is needed depending on the case.
The guide consists of an overview of Korea-US international collaborative research agreement guideline, an international collaborative research contract, a confidentiality agreement, a glossary of terms, a contract check list, Q&A, etc. An example of the original text and a commentary on it are written in the order of parties, full text, definition, etc. according to the general contract writing order, to improve readability. The explanation is written in detail by clause of an international collaborative research contract, such as parties, research funds, intellectual property, confidentiality, dispute resolution, etc., such that a contractor can extract and read only the parts (s)he needs.
The head of the Intellectual Property Policy Bureau of KIPO said, “the guide presents contract writing cases and guidelines such that Korean researchers can refer to when writing an international collaborative research contract with US… and the guide will be helpful for Korea researchers so as to reasonably conclude a collaborative research and development agreement with US and to effectively utilize the results of the research and development.”
4. Exports increased by 456% by IP support.
- KIPO listened to the on-site voices of export-supporting companies.
- KIPO visited AUROS Technology, Inc., a company with significant increase in exports by the IP-based overseas expansion support.
KIPO visited AUROS Technology, Inc., to hold a signboard unveiling ceremony meeting of “global IP start enterprise”. The global IP star enterprise indicates a company that succeeded in exporting through KIPO’s IP-based overseas expansion support project. This visit to the company was prepared to check the results of KIPO’s IP-based overseas expansion support project and to understand the company’s difficulties.
The IP-based overseas expansion support is a project to support a small or medium company for overseas expansion by providing the company with an IP total service up to 3 years. Last year, 84.7% of the beneficiary companies succeeded in exporting or expanded the size of exportation, and the export amount was increased by 10.1% compared to before receiving the support.
AUROS Technology, Inc. is a global small but strong company which achieved results in reorganizing the US-centered monopoly structure by supplying equipment to not only Korean big companies but also overseas companies by localizing the semiconductor overlay measurement-related technology.
Although the sales of AUROS Technology, Inc., grew in Korea based on unrivaled technology, since its exports were sluggish because it was blocked by the IP barrier in overseas markets, it requested for KIPO’s IP-based overseas expansion support. In 2022 which was the first year of the support project, the company’s technology was diagnosed and analyzed and the company was supported with a patent map to establish an overseas expansion strategy through an international market analysis. In the second and third years of the support project, this company was supported with the costs of filing 57 overseas patent applications in export destination countries. As a result, this company took advantage of technology over its competitors in the export destination countries, increasing its export value by 456%.
5. Even if a pre-registered trademark exits, it is possible to register a trademark of an applicant who later files a trademark application.
- Applicants’ response to the ‘trademark coexistence agreement’.
- After the trademark coexistence agreement was operated in May 2024, 447 cases were received over 4 months, showing a successful settlement of this system.
- A trademark of an application which was filed later is considered as having the same force as a trademark which was earlier registered…the system has an effect of preventing a trademark dispute.
A total of 447 cases were received over four months (May ~ August 2024) since the operation (effective on May 1, 2024) of the trademark coexistence agreement under which if an owner of a trademark which was earlier registered agrees, a trademark which is similar to the trademark which was earlier registered is registrable.
According to KIPO, the trademark coexistence agreement (effective on May 2024) based on the amendment to the Korean Trademark Act has been successfully settled.
【 Trademark Coexistence Agreement 】
Under the Trademark Coexistence Agreement system, if an owner of a trademark which was earlier registered or an applicant of an earlier-filed trademark application agrees* with a registration of a trademark of a later-filed application which is identical with or similar in terms of a mark** and designated goods***, the trademark of the later-filed application can be registered.
This system was prepared to help in solving problems of small or medium companies or small businesspeople, etc. who cannot register their trademarks that they want to use, due to identical or similar trademarks which were earlier registered or earlier filed in applications.
*But, this system is not applied when both a trademark and designated goods in a later-filed application are identical with those that were earlier registered or filed in an application.
**mark: all indications, such as any sign, letter, figure, etc., used to indicate the source of goods.
*** designated goods: names of goods which an applicant wants to use a trademark to.
A total of 447 trademark coexistence agreements were submitted over four months by the end of August 2024, getting the applicants’ responses. Upon reviewing the cases based on the holders of an earlier-filed application and a later-filed application, 321 cases (72%) were between a company and a company, 70 (16%) were between an individual and a company, 36 (8%) were a company and an individual, and 20 (4%) were between an individual and an individual, showing that this agreement system were actively used in the relationship of a company and a company.
When the trademark coexistence agreement cases were submitted, 217 cases (49%) were waiting for examination, 185 (41%) were first laid-open (as applications), 34 (8%) were decided to be registered, 6 (1%) were in trial stage (appeal against a final rejection). This shows that the trademark coexistence agreement system has been utilized in various stages, from a trademark application to trademark examination, registration and trial stage and it prevents a dispute between two parties.
When filing a trademark application or at an examination or trial stage, an applicant who wants a trademark coexistence may submit a trademark coexistence agreement writing that an owner of an earlier-registered trademark or a trademark of an earlier-filed application agrees with a registration of an identical or similar trademark of a later-filed application, together with an application or an argument, etc. Since the trademark which is registered based on the coexistence agreement corresponds to a trademark with the same status as an earlier registered trademark, it is considered as having the same force as a general registered trademark.
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