1. A biggest Korean IP integrated exhibition will be held in December
- Submitting entries to a Korea Intellectual Property Exhibition 2016 has started from July 11, 2016.
The Korea Intellectual Property Exhibition 2016 which is the biggest Korean IP integrated exhibition hosted by the Korea Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) and supervised by the Korea Invention Promotion Association will be held for four (4) days from December 1 (Thursday) to 4 (Sunday) this year, in Hall A, 1st floor, COEX located in Samseong-dong, Seoul.
In the ‘Korea Invention Patent Exhibition 2016’ (KINPEX), now in its thirty-fifth year, about 100 outstanding inventions in 7 areas will be awarded and exhibited. The period for receiving entries by KINPEX is from July 11 to August 8. Except for students and foreigners, anyone that is a Korean may apply an invention (including technique) of an applicant filing a patent or utility model application or an owner registering a patent or utility model or a successor thereof.
In its twelfth year, the ‘Seoul International Invention Fair’ (SIIF) which is the biggest Korean exhibition includes a contest to select excellent inventions among the entities submitted from all the countries of the world. Entries to SIIF can be submitted from July 18 to October 14. In SIIF 2015, a total of 525 creative inventions from 33 countries of the world were exhibited. An ordinary person (over a university student) or a company being filing a patent·utility model·design application or having a registered IP right can apply for participation.
2. A preliminary examination interview system is operated for applications to register collective·certification marks for a geographical indication
- An interview between an applicant and an examiner is strengthened to support an application related to a geographical indication to rapidly obtain a right.
According to KIPO, a preliminary examination interview system regarding an application for registering collective·certification marks related to a geographical indication (hereinafter, referred to as a ‘geographical indication application’) has been operated from July 4, 2016. This system is to help a geographical indication application’ to be rapidly registered through the interview between an examiner and an applicant of the application before a reason(s) for rejection is notified. Through the interview, the examiner guides a reason(s) for rejection and a direction for an amendment such that the applicant solves in advance the reason(s) for rejection through an voluntary amendment for the rapid registration of the application.
An applicant of a geographical indication application or a patent attorney can request a preliminary examination interview, which is made for an application under a preferential examination among geographic indication applications.
An applicant of a geographical indication application can request a preliminary examination interview in a ‘corner for an interview with an examiner/judge’ at the home page of KIPO, within ten (10) days from the date of mailing a decision for a preferential examination. The applicant can write, in the request corner, three (3) dates for the interview as desired. Whether the preliminary examination interview is available is notified to the applicant within fifteen (15) days from the date of mailing a decision for a preferential examination.
3. KIPO will publish a ‘guide to use a standard form for trade secret management’
Since the damages of Korean companies due to technology leakage have increased, the importance of trade secret protection has been emphasized every day. KIPO announced it would publish a ‘guide to use a standard form for trade secret management’ (hereinafter, referred to as a ‘standard form guide’), to positively carry forward the support of trade secret protection of small and medium companies.
Most trade secret leakage has been made by former and current staff. In a process of determining whether trade is secret, a court critically considers whether a confidential agreement, etc. has been entered into. Therefore, it is most important to strengthen a trade secret and to impose a specific protection obligation to executives and staff members through a confidential agreement, an agreement for prohibition of competitive business, internal security regulations, etc.
Nevertheless, there are many cases where the forms previously used in a company overlook the necessity to specify the subject(s) to be protected or are too simple in content to reflect the particularity to consider a starter, a former employee, a project participant, etc. by target.
Inquiry: 042-481-5953, Deputy Director of Intellectual Property Protection Policy Division under Intellectual Property Protection & International Cooperation Bureau
4. The number of patent applications related to an inexpensive and high-quality two (2)-channel audio system has increased
As the technology to realize a stereophonic sound based on a stereo system has been steadily researched and developed, the number of the relevant patent applications tends to increase.
According to KIPO, the number of Korean patent applications related to the stereophonic sound technology was a total of 1,053 for the last three (3) years, including 342 in 2013, 329 in 2014 and 382 in 2015.
Upon dividing technologies of the applications in view of an audio reproduction system, 393 applications were related to a stereo system technology outputting to two (2) speakers (two channels), 243 were related to a surround system technology requiring an additional speaker (multi channels), and 417 were related to a common technology including the above two technologies.
In fact, this shows that the research and development to realize a stereophonic sound by using a two-channel audio have been actively conducted even though a 5.1 channel audio which is a standard dimension of a stereophonic sound has been popularized.
The technology to realize a stereophonic sound has eventually developed in the direction to reproduce, through a speaker(s), a sense of direction and distance (sound field) of a sound source which is felt in a three-dimensional real space as it is.
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