1. Korea Intellectual Property Trial and Appeal Board (KIPTAB) reorganizes the trial boards
According to KIPO, since July 14, 2020 KIPTAB has reorganized the trial division system from currently eleven (11) trial boards to thirty-six (36) trial boards, to enhance the fairness, independence and examination fidelity of an IP trial.
KIPTAB is a special administrative appeal agency which has the function of determining a feasibility status when an appeal is filed against a decision of final rejection made by an examiner of KIPO and handles disputes related to IP rights (patent, trademark, design, etc.) according to quasi-judicial procedures.
Previously, KIPTAB included the eleven (11) trial boards divided by rights and technical fields, eleven (11) chief judges being on a director level and ninety-six (96) judges being a chief of department, so that one chief judge should direct about nine (9) judges.
This excessive overseeing structure had difficulty in more faithfully performing the three-judge agreement according to the purpose of the Patent Law and continuing to enhance the fairness and independence of a trial.
Further, although most of about 10,000 cases handled per year were examined based on documents, the reorganization of the trial system has been required to expand a deeper oral examination as the importance of IP rights such as patents, etc. has increased.
In this regard, the revisions of the four (4) laws, the Enforcement Decrees of the Patent Law and the Trademark Law, the organization of KIPO, the Enforcement Rules of the organization, were made through various internal and external feedbacks and the meetings of the related authorities for more than one year since 2019.
As a result, the number of trial boards of KIPTAB will expand from 11 to 36, and each trial board will consist of one chief judge and two judges, to strengthen the independence of the trial board and fully operate the substantial ‘three examiner agreement’ system.
2. 432 excellent public technologies with promising business gather in one place
The Ministry of Science and Technology Information and Communication, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, the Small and Medium Venture Business Department, and KIPO announced to open a ‘road show of public technology transfer and commercialization’ (hereinafter, referred to as a ‘road show’).
This event is an opportunity to broker a meeting between a demander and a supplier of technology so that excellent public technology created by the government R&D investment is successfully transferred and commercialized to a small/medium company.
This event, which was first held in 2013 by KIPO and the Small and Medium Business Administration, has further expanded year after year. A total of twelve events resulted in matching the result about 5,900 cases of excellent public technology with a total of 414 companies and concluding 435 technology transfer statement cases.
This year, the five ministries found 432 excellent public technology and plan to link it to small and medium or midsize companies needing it.
To this end, a dedicated website (http://ipbiz-roadshow.com/) will be operated for a user to request a technology presentation or consultation online or offline. Part 1 of the event will be live aired by KTV Youtube, to expand shrunken public technology transfer and commercialization due to COVID-19.
3. Five (5) powerful countries in the world intellectual property (IP5) jointly cope with the crisis of COVID-19
-Through a joint declaration, IP5 fully takes action in preparation for the post-corona.
The Commissioners of the Patent Offices in the IP5 countries (the Republic of Korea, US, Japan, China and Europe) had a videoconference on July 21, 2020 (in Korea time) to discuss the directions which IP5 shall head and the tasks after the post-corona era.
The Commissioners’ meeting, which had been originally planed to be held in Chengdu, China, was to be postponed by the end of this year at the request of China. However, the meeting was conducted by video under the determination that IP5’ joint actions and strategies were urgent to overcome the global economic downturn after COVID-19.
In this meeting, the IP5’ Commissioners published the ‘IP5 joint declaration’ containing the willingness to take joint actions against the crisis of COVID-19.
In the joint declaration, IP5 recognized that the intellectual property (IP) is the useful means to break the current economic downturn and decided to strengthen the IP protection in the entire industrial areas. Specially, IP5 agreed to promote the development of the relevant technology by transparently publishing the patent and technology information relating to COVID-19 diagnosis, treatment and prevention.
Additionally, IP5 agreed to continue efforts in strengthening cooperation in the new technology areas (such as AI, etc.), improving a user convenience through the harmonization of patent systems, and improving the predictability of examination results by strengthening the quality and efficiency of a patent examination.
Mr. Wonjoo PARK, the Commissioner of KIPO, who as the chief representative of the Republic of Korea attended this meeting, emphasized that the role theory of IP5 to solve the conflicts of interest, to guarantee public accessibility to medicines, i.e., a COVID-19 remedy, which had been raised after the breakout of COVID-19, and to protect a patentee.
IP5 presented that, in order for IP to act as a true ‘catalyst’ to secure the development of the COVID-19 treatment technology and the safety of all people, it is necessary to reorganize the current IP system and to this end, to collect the IP5’s wisdom.
8. the number of Korean trademark applications for cosmetics, K-Beauty giving priority to quality and brand
-The existing oldest Korean cosmetic trademark is ‘태평양 (Pacific)’ which it has been 61 years since it was registered in 1959.
According to KIPO, the number of trademark applications relating to cosmetics increased from 15,017 in 2014 to 20,956 in 2019 with an increase of about 39.6%, due to the influence of the Korean wave (Hallyu) including K-pop, K-drama, etc. and the increase in domestic and overseas consumers’ preference on K-beauty quality and brand. The number of cosmetics-related trademark applications increased from 15,017 in 2014, to 19,088 in 2017 and to 20,956 in 2019.
The companies which filed many cosmetics-related trademark applications over the last five years (2015~2019) were the big companies, LG Household & Health Care Ltd. and AMOREPACIFIC, followed by the road shop brands, The FACE SHOP, MICHAA and TONYMOLY. LG Household & Health Care Ltd. and AMOREPACIFIC are in a 1st and 3rd place, respectively, in the total number of trademark applications as well as in the classification of cosmetics.
The percentages of trademark applications based on the size of a company are as follows: Whereas the percentage of big companies decreased by half from 11.8% in 2015 to 5.8% in 2019, the percentage of small and medium companies increased from 34.5% to 39.2% and the percentage of individuals increased from 34.1% to 37.1%, showing that the percentage of small and medium companies and individuals increased by 7.7%p, from 68.6% in 2015 to 76.3% in 2019.
This is interpreted since the online cosmetics distribution has become active and the entry of small and medium companies, venture companies and individual business people into the cosmetic markets has been relatively easy by consignment/contract production, such as OEM (original equipment manufacturer) or ODM (original development manufacturer), without their own production facilities.
Further, as the demand for non-face to face online shopping has increased, consumers are easily exposed to diverse brands through hash tags or keyword searches and new brands having good quality have gained popularity for a short period through fast word-of-mouth on blog reviews.
K-pop fever is also considered as influencing and giving wings to the K-beauty brands. A certain company’s mask pack, which has been advertised as modelling “BTS”, the K-pop idol group representing the Republic of Korea, was sold out within three hours after the product was launched. It is not uncommon that a cosmetics advertisement model was changed from an actress to a famous male idol.
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