1. KIPO held a presentation for policy trends of trademark and design systems to be newly changed in 2018
The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) held a presentation for policy trends to introduce the trademark and design systems which will be newly changed in 2018, in a council chamber at the 19th floor of the Korea Intellectual Property Service Center.
This presentation was not only to introduce the revisions in the Enforcement Regulation of the Korean Trademark Act and the examination standards of trademark and design applications, which will be in force beginning in January 2018, but also to explain the changes in the classification of goods and the progress of the introduction of a new classification system of design goods, which will be applied from January 2018.
In the trademark system field, in a case where a part of the designated goods is given up when a registration to establish a trademark is made, the intent of giving up part of the goods should be described in a written paper when paying the registration fee, without submitting a separate written paper of waiver, thereby simplifying the procedures.
Further, in a case where the registration fee of a trademark is not paid, a later trademark application is subject to a decision of registration, without postponing the examination thereof, enabling a rapidly granted right.
In the design system field, in a case where a part to be registered in a partial design application is divided into two or more, it can be approved as one design, thereby greatly relieving the basis for the decision.
2. The Republic of Korea was in 1st place in ranking of the number of patent applications in comparison to GDP and population
- The Republic of Korea was 4th in ranking of the number of patent applications.
According to KIPO, the Republic of Korea held a 1st place in ranking of the number patent applications in comparison to its GDP and population in 2016, based on the “World intellectual Property Indicator 2017” published by WIPO.
Based on the aforementioned report, the number of the patent applications filed in 2016 in the whole world was, for the first time, over 3,000,000, reaching 3,128,000 with an increase of 8.3% compared to 2,889,000 in 2015.
By countries, China was 1st in rank with 1,340,000, followed by US with 606,000, Japan with 318,000 and the Republic of Korea with 209,000.
However, in the number of applications in comparison to a country’s GDP and in the number of applications in comparison to population, the Republic of Korea kept the 1st place preceding the major advanced countries including US, Japan, Germany, etc., showing the Republic of Korea is strong in filing patent applications.
In the Republic of Korea, since the number of patent applications increased faster than the number of examiners during the last ten (10) years, the number of the patent applications which were waited for examination per patent examiner continued to increase but the examination process time decreased compared to the past. Thus, it is thought that the work intensity of the patent examiners increased during the foregoing period.
3. A meeting of the commissioners of KIPO, SIPO and JPO was held
To discus the current intellectual property (IP) issues among Korea-China-Japan and the common interests, Mr. Yunmo SUNG, Commissioner of KIPO, Mr. Changyu SHEN, Commissioner of the State Intellectual Property Office of China (SIPO), and Mr. Naoko MUNAKATA of the Japanese Patent Office (JPO) held the 17th meeting of the commissioners of KIPO, SIPO and JPO and the 29th meeting of the commissioners of KIPO and JPO on December 6, 2017in the Shilla hotel in Jeju island.
Specifically, in this meeting, a new ‘cooperation framework’ of KIPO-SIPO-JPO has been adopted after a one (1)-year discussion. The cooperation framework regulates the ranges and forms of the cooperation among the three and it is the first time that such a form is documented.
Through the meeting, as the agreement that KIPO-SIPO-JPO shall play a responsible role for the global IP system development and the identity of cooperation among the three shall be established, a cooperation framework has been finally adopted and the agreement on the cooperation direction establishment and promotion has arrived.
The number of applications filed with KIPO, SIPO and JPO reaches 56% of the world patent applications and the number of design applications reaches 76% of the world design applications.
For the first time, the KIPO-SIPO-JPO cooperation was named as “TRIPO” in this meeting and a new emblem to symbolize the “TRIPO” cooperation was selected.
4. The number of patent applications relating for a dual camera module has rapidly increased
Recently, as the major smart phone manufacturing companies including Samsung, Apple, LG, etc. have applied a dual camera module to not only main products but also middle-low priced products, the demand of dual camera modules has rapidly increased and the number of the relevant applications has also increased.
According to KIPO, the number of patent applications relating to the dual camera module, which were filed for the last five (5) years, increased from 10 in 2012 to 44 in 2016, showing an annual average 45%.
A dual camera module means that two or more camera modules are integrally formed. Dual camera modules are classified by types as follows: a front and rear integral type in which a front camera and a rear camera of a smart phone are integrally built, a same binocular type in which the same camera modules are positioned in a row and integrally built for three-dimensional image shooting, a heterogeneous or different binocular type in which different cameras to perform different roles from each other, such as a color camera and a white and black camera, a wide angle camera and a telescopic camera, and a high-resolution camera and a low-resolution camera, are positioned side by side to be integrally built.
Among the relevant applications filed during the last five (5) years, 59% (83 applications) are for the heterogeneous binocular type, 23% (33) for the same kind binocular type, and 18% (25) for the front and rear integral type. Among the foregoing three types, the number of the applications for the heterogeneous binocular type, which held the highest rate, increased from 3 in 2012 to 38 in 2016, showing an annual average, 89%.
The rapid increase in the number of the patent applications for the heterogeneous binocular type dual camera is considered as a result of actively performing the relevant technology development as the use of two cameras enables a function that it is difficult to realize using only one camera.
|
