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The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO, Commissioner: Soo-won LEE) will tighten criminal case penalties for the distribution of counterfeit products in on/off line markets (News Letter No. 202)

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KH

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2010-10-18

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1. The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO, Commissioner: Soo-won LEE) will tighten criminal case penalties for the distribution of counterfeit products in on/off line markets

- KIPO held a welcoming ceremony for a special judicial police squad for trademarks

To better reinforce the control and penalties regarding the manufacture, distribution and sale of counterfeit products, called fake products, which are increasing, KIPO has newly introduced and implemented the service of ¡®the special judicial police authority for trademarks¡¯ since August 2010. Accordingly, KIPO held the ¡® welcoming ceremony of the special judicial police squad for trademarks¡¯ at 11 am, October 8, 2010, in the Government Complex (3-Dong, Grand conference room no. 204) in Daejeon. In the ceremony, KIPO announced that they would continue to tighten control to root out the distribution of counterfeit products.

In KIPO¡¯s previous activities to control the counterfeit products, KIPO together with local governments were to expose the counterfeit products distributed in the provincial markets or stores and take administrative measures such as advice on rectification. However, as the special judicial police authority has been given to KIPO, the KIPO policemen for trademarks directly arrest the counterfeit criminals who manufacture, distribute and sell counterfeit products and send them so as to be prosecuted for the criminal penalties. Therefore, KIPO¡¯s control of the manufacturers, distributors and sellers of counterfeit products is expected to be strengthened.

At present, the organization of the special judicial police squad under KIPO consists of three local offices in Seoul (to control the metropolitan area), Daejeon (to control Chungcheong and Honam areas) and Busan (to control the Yeongnam area), where a total of 15 special judical policemen act.

In the future, the control of counterfeit products in the local areas or stores will be assigned to the local governments. KIPO will mainly focus on the criminal penalties, such as seizing and arresting the manufactures, distributors and sellers of large-scale counterfeit products. Further, KIPO also announced that they would strongly control on-line shopping malls by not only closing the sites for selling counterfeit products distributed by the online shopping malls but also arresting those that sell the counterfeit products by IP tracing, which would be sent to be prosecuted.


2. A technology for mass production of graphene has been developed

A Korean research team for the first time developed a method of mass-producing graphene at a room temperature.

On September 26, 2010, it was reported that a research team led by Prof. Hyung-young LEE of Sung-kyun-kwan University developed a method capable of mass producing high-quality graphene having no impurities by a room temperature process, using a new reducing agent (iodic acid, HI).

Graphene which is a hexagonal carbon compound is considered as a ¡®dreamy new material¡¯ to make a bendable/flexible display. The graphene production methods which have been developed are largely classified into 4 (four): a scotch tape method, a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method, an epitaxial method using a silicon carbide insulator, and a chemical method using a reducing agent. Among these methods, the method using a reducing agent is capable of mass-production. However, this method has a defect in that the quality is lower since impurities remain, in comparison with the other three methods.

However, the domestic research team¡¯s development has opened a possibility of a high graphene composition having almost no impurities at a temperature (40¡É) which is much lower in comparison with the other conventional methods.

Prof. LEE said, ¡°through this research, a mass production of high quality graphene will be possible in the Republic of Korea. He also said, ¡°the significance of the research is a basis that the Republic of Korea can develop as a powerful country in the next generation electronic material industry.¡±

The research team is preparing the filing of applications in foreign countries (the US, Europe, China and Japan) after completing the filing of the application with KIPO. The result of this research has been published on the online alert dated September 22, 2010 in the science professional journal, ¡®Nature Communication¡¯.


3. The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) has developed a new material increasing the power of a secondary battery by 100 times

On September 15, 2010, the team led by Prof. Do-kyung KIM of the Department of New Materials Science & Engineering in KAIST announced that they developed ¡®thin nanowire of lithium manganese oxide¡¯.

According to an explanation from the research team, this material is capable of producing a power density (the amount of electric power being output per unit volume or weight) which is more than 100 times the anode material used for a conventional lithium ion secondary battery, which is used for an electric car battery. Its manufacturing processes are simple and its manufacturing costs are low.

The result of this research is published in an old standard paper in the nano technology field, ¡®Nano Letters,¡¯ and a Korean patent application has been filed.

The research team announced that the structure of thin nanowire of lithium manganese oxide, which is less than 10 nm, is mass-composed to be applied to the anode material, so that the team succeeded in realizing high power density.

In order for a lithium ion secondary battery to produce power density of a similar level to that of an internal combustion engine, its weight becomes heavy and needs expensive material and process. However, according to the research team, this new material as developed is usable for an electric car battery and it is also applicable for various other products.


4. A future car wears magnesium

- The number of applications related a magnesium material is rapidly increasing

Magnesium is one fourth of iron in weight but is six times stronger than iron. Magnesium is a typical environment-friendly material which is very easily recycled. In automobiles, a high quality car uses a magnesium material for handles, seats and the dashboard. However, since all countries of the world demand fuel efficiency, the use of magnesium materials is expected to greatly increase in the future.

According to KIPO, 663 patent applications for the last 10 years were filed for the magnesium material technology and the number of the applications is increasing every year.

By techniques, a number of the applications are related to an alloy technique (about 24%), followed by a panel and process technique (19%), a technique for processing the surface of a material (6%) and a technique relating to powder (5%). The other techniques (46%) are related to various IT product cases, extracting and recycling of magnesium, and biological materials using magnesium. Recently, the use of magnesium is expanded to various fields such as frames of glasses, implants and kitchen utensils.

A spokesperson of KIPO said, ¡°since the Government has selected 10 consortiums including ¡®ultra-light magnesium materials for transportation vehicles¡¯ as the 10 core material (WPM: world premier materials) project to preoccupy the world markets and the governmental research and development funds of about one trillion Korea Won will be used for the WPM project by 2018, the steady research and development of a magnesium material study and the investment thereof are needed to secure the initiative of the future automobile industry and the environment-friendly compone ¡¡

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