1. KIPTAB published an analysis of patent invalidation trials over the last ten (10) years
According to the Korea Intellectual Property Trial and Appeal Board (KIPTAB), the period to the filing of an invalidation trial after a patent registration became longer based on the last ten (10) years and the number of the patents which were invalid (lapsed) by the invalidation trials decreased by 4.4%, an annual average.
Basically, the average period of filing an invalidation trial became longer from 2.1 years in 2008 to 4.2 years in 2017. This is due to the fact that the percentage of the invalidation trials filed regarding patents which passed three (3) years after their registration sharply increased from 22.9% in 2008 to 53.0% in 2017. The change in percentage is considered as reflecting the trend that companies wanted to rapidly obtain their patent registrations before using the related technologies.
Classified by technological fields, in the living techniques such as toys, cleaning products, etc., and the telecommunication techniques, since most invalidation trials were filed within three (3) years after patent registration, a short technical cycle was regarded as being reflected in the trials. In the chemical and mechanical fields, since most invalidation trials were filed regarding the patents that passed ten (10) years or more after patent registration, a long period was required for utilizing rights after developing techniques.
The number of the cases where the invalidation trials were determined (terminated) over the last ten (10) years was 4,219, including 2,086 (49.4%) where the rights finally were terminated. The number of the trials as determined was about 400, an annual average, which was similar every year, however, the number of the rights as terminated tended to decrease from 253 in 2008 to 170 in 2017.
2. An electronic exchange of a priority certificate document is carried out between the Republic of Korea and the USA
A Korean applicant who files a design application in the USA may not submit directly a priority certificate document to the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) and USPTO agreed to electronically exchange a priority certificate document for a design application and start the full operation of this agreement from December 1, 2018.
KIPO, USPTO, the Japanese Patent Office (JPO), the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) of the People’s Republic of China, and the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) have discussed the electronic exchange of a priority certificate document since 2015.
As a result, KIPO and SIPO have for the first time started the electronic exchange of priority certificate documents for design applications to be filed in the two countries since July 20, 2018.
Starting December 1, 2018, KIPO and USPTO operate the electronic exchange of priority certificate documents for design applications to be filed in the two countries. From now on, when an applicant describes, in an application document to be filed, the information related to a priority application number filed in one country, KIPO and USPTO, on the behalf of the applicant, exchange the relevant priority certified document online.
3. KIPO opens a new field for African IP education
KIPO and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) jointly held an ‘Intellectual Property Impact Certificate Course’ (IPCC) in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, on November 27~30, 2018, attended by teachers, governmental officials, experts, etc. that were selected in the eleven (11) Africa countries.
IPCC is an international IP education course which was jointly established in 2017 by KIPO-WIPO-Korea Invention Promotion Association (KIPA), using the WIPO-Korea trust funds. IPCC is also a special education course operated using a combination of online and offline education.
Specially, this year IPCC was performed jointly with the Zambia government, for the Korean IP proliferation in the Africa area. To this end, 153 people in 52 countries including Uganda and Nigeria took the course by online from June to August this year. 57 people with excellent grades took the in-depth education course in Lusaka, Zambia during the period of November 27~30.
4. KIPO and the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MHW) held a work agreement ceremony for innovation and growth in IP-based bio health industry
KIPO and MHW held a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to innovate and grow the Intellectual Property (IP)-based bio health industry in the health industry innovation and foundation center on November 26, 2018.
This MOU is to build an efficient cooperation system, whereby the outputs of health and medical research and development (R&D), such as pharmaceuticals, medical devices, etc., are connected to the innovative patents to activate the IP-based foundation and commercialization.
The two are to cooperate throughout all R&D steps including planning-R&D-performance management and strengthen the connection between the health and medical R&D and KIPO’s IP R&D projects such that the R&D results can create excellent patents.
The IP R&D projects suggest the optimum technical development direction by using patent information from the start of research and development and support the preoccupancy of excellent patents by invalidating or avoiding the prior patent techniques of foreign companies.
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