1. It is easier to check the risk of an overseas patent dispute and respond to it!
- KIPO completed carrying out the advancement of a patent dispute risk alert system, published on December 13.
- KIPO added services of analyzing a company-customized patent dispute risk and providing dispute trends of an overseas non-practicing patent management company (non-practicing entity, NPE) or a competing company, etc.
According to KIPO, additional services have been provided from December 13, 2023 by reorganizing the patent dispute risk alert system (koipa.re.kr/ipalert, opened in March, 2023).
The patent dispute risk alert system provides a US patent dispute risk level (very high, high, medium, low), a list of patents with high risk of dispute, a company’s response tips, a government support project to prevent and respond to a patent dispute.
This reorganization added the services of analyzing a company-customized patent dispute risk, analyzing a dispute trend of an overseas non-practicing patent management company (NPE) or a competing company and providing information of an overseas company, etc. which is frequently accused of patent infringement, by positively reflecting a company which is an actual user of this system, so that a Korean company expanding overseas is able to detect an overseas patent dispute risk to prevent any damages.
This reorganized system provides patent dispute risk analysis information customized for an individual company. When your company signs up in the website, it can check the recent US patent dispute cases in main technology fields, a patent with high risk of dispute, and a company with a high possibility of raising a patent dispute to your company or a company which is frequently accused of patent litigation, to prepare for an overseas patent dispute risk. Further, it is possible to check the technology development and patent application directions by directly confirming the major technical fields where your company filed patent applications and the number of the applications by technical field.
This reorganized system provides patent dispute risk analysis information of an overseas non-practicing patent management company (NPE) or a competing company. A user is able to analyze a relevant company’s patent litigation strategies and latest dispute tendency and prepare in advance for a patent dispute, by checking the relevant company’s patent dispute history, such as an overseas company’s patent infringement trial, invalidation trial, US International Trade Commission (ITC) litigation, etc. Through an analysis of an overseas competing company’s patent, a user can check the information predicting patent expiration by major technical field and year, to be used in developing the user company’s product and establishing strategies to secure a patent.
To improve the utilization of an overseas patent right of a Korean company, this system also provides information of an overseas company which has been frequently accused of patent infringement by technical field. Since a company which has been frequently accused of patent infringement is likely to copy another company’s technology or neglect to analyze whether to infringe a patent, a possibility of patent infringement is high. When a Korean company monitors a product of the relevant company frequently accused of patent infringement and the patent infringement is confirmed, it is possible to rapidly respond to the patent infringement by sending a warning letter, etc., thereby minimizing damages.
In addition, the user convenience has been also significantly improved, such as ▲trends of US and German patent disputes by year ▲list of patents involved in disputes ▲history of patent disputes and transfer of rights by patent ▲dispute risk level of technologies at issue, semiconductor, display, secondary battery, etc. ▲technology fields with rapidly increasing patent disputes ▲analysis of change in dispute risk by technical field.
2. KIPO increases the number of IP valuation agencies.
- KIPO additionally selects 11 private agencies with evaluation capacity such as a bank, a patent law firm, etc.
- IP financial activation is expected due to the expansion of private sector-led IP valuation market.
For the private sector-led IP valuation market activation, KIPO published to additionally select 11 agencies as valuation agencies of an invention, etc. This is expected to be an opportunity of activating the IP financing which is an innovative company’s means of financing.
The valuation agency of an invention, etc. is an IP valuation professional organization to calculate the economic value of the IP. The number of valuation agencies of an invention, etc. increases from 22 to a total of 33 according to this additional selection.
IP valuation is mainly used for IP financing, such as IP value-based loan and investment, etc. In line with the increasing demand for evaluation, such as the recent IP financing activation, etc., from the field, the demand that the IP valuation agency needs to be expanded has been continued.
Therefore, KIPO newly selected 11 private agencies as the valuation agency of an invention, etc. through the on-site inspection and the designated deliberation by an external expert(s).
3. KIPO and the electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure industry held an IP meeting in the core technology field.
- They discussed measures to strengthen global patent competitiveness regarding EV quick charge and charging safety technology (overheating prevention technology).
Considering that consumer demand has soared regarding the fast and safe EV charging being essential in promoting the expansion of distribution of EV domestically and internationally, the meeting was prepared to share the industrial and patent trends of the EV quick charge and charging safety technology and to establish future policy support directions to strengthen the global patent competitiveness.
A number of Korean applicant companies participating in the meeting were big companies, small and medium companies, start-ups, contributed research institutes, public enterprises, etc. in the EV charging infrastructure field.
In the meeting, KIPO introduced the patent application trends and the domestic and international examination trends relating to the EV quick charge and charging safety technology. KIPO also listened to the relevant industry’s technical development trends and IP-related inconvenience, to provide a high-quality patent examination service and exchanged opinions on matters of mutual interest.
The total number of patent applications relating to the EV quick charge and charging safety technology, which were filed with IP5 (KIPO, USPTO, CNIPA, EPO and JPO) over the last 10 years (2011~2020), was 10,469 by increasing an annual average of 11%.
By applicant’s nationality, following Japan which filed 2,969 (28.4%), South Korea filed 2,726 which was 26% of the total of the relevant patent applications, followed by China 2,112 (20.2%) and US 1,129 (10.8%.
Among the nationalities of the applicants filing the relevant multiple applications over the same period, an annual average increase rate of the number of the applications filed by South Korea was 13.5%, following China (56.3%) and followed by US (11.7%) and Germany (6.4%). Like this, South Korea ranked 2nd in the world, respectively, in the number of the relevant applications and the annual average increase rate there.
4. Future economy is read by analyzing trademark bigdata.
- KIPO held a ‘2023 trademark bigdata academic conference’ (December 5)
- Analysis results of economic changes and industrial trends from the point of view of trademarks were shared.
- A ‘trademark bigdata analysis project’ is carried forward from this year and analysis results will be continuously provided.
＃ A game company, “E”, filed a trademark application relating to clothing (April 2018) and then entered the game avatars and real clothing sales business with cooperation with a fashion industry (September 2021).
＃ A food company, “D”, filed a trademark application relating to health function food in the memory and cognition function field (February 2020) and then launched the relevant new product (August 2020).
⇒ Since a trademark application filed by a company contains commitment to future business, future industrial changes can be predicted through trademark bigdata.
KIPO held the ‘2023 trademark bigdata academic conference’ December 5, 2023.
The academic conference was held on the topic of ‘trademark bigdata and future economy’.
In the conference, the attendees shared the analysis results of economic changes and diverse industrial trends from the point of view of ‘trademarks’. After the recent research trends and development directions on the trademark bigdata analysis were introduced, analysis results of an impact of economic fluctuations on trademark applications were presented.
Opinions on the trademark bigdata and future economy in various fields were conveyed through a discussion of experts in various fields, such as industrial engineering, management strategies, corporate officials, etc. Finally, a newly appearing business area was prospected through the analysis cases by industry of these 4: ▲ mobility, ▲ game SW, ▲ healthcare, and ▲ electronic products.
This year, for the first time in the government and private sector, KIPO conducted the analysis of industrial trends based on trademark bigdata. Through this analysis, it was confirmed that a trademark proceeds future business and the trademarks and the economy have a close influence.
As a result of analyzing the influence of economic fluctuations on filing of trademark applications, based on the information of Korean trademark applications over the last 30 years, it showed that the number of trademark applications increased when companies expected future economic boom. By company size, in the order of medium companies, big companies and small companies, there was a lot of positive volatility in the number of trademark applications according to economic fluctuations. This meant that medium companies which agilely seek opportunities for diverse innovation to expand business were most affected.
In the analysis results by industry, the trademark tendency of proceeding business was noted. As a result of analyzing domestic and international trademark bigdata over the last 10 years (using application statistics of KIPO, USPTO, JPO, CNIPA, EPO, as of January 2013~May 2023), in the case of mobility industry, the number of trademark applications increased from 2013 which was ahead of 2017 when the sharing service of bicycles, electric kickboard, etc. was fully activated. In the case of healthcare industry, the major companies, such as Daesang Wellife, i-SENS, InBody, Chong Kun Dang, etc., were considered as preparing future business based on preemptive trademark applications.
Like this, the trademark bigdata analysis is considered as being used for useful information in predicting future promising industry, based on the trademark leading economy. KIPO will provide diverse industrial trends and business implications through a trademark bigdata analysis project, thereby positively support Korean companies to utilize in searching business strategies.
5. KIPO held a meeting to share achievements of the council to prevent distribution of counterfeit products.
- The government and private sector cooperate to create a private-centered ecosystem to prevent distribution of counterfeit products.
KIPO entered a team with domestic and overseas trademark owners and online media (platforms), for accelerating a joint response to prevent the distribution of counterfeit products.
On December 4, 2023 KIPO held a meeting to share achievements of the council to prevent the distribution of counterfeit products (hereinafter, referred to as the ‘council’).
After the council was launched in May 2014 as a public-private cooperation network to effectively respond to the distribution of counterfeit products, about 90 member companies, at present, including the government and related organizations, trademark owners and online media (platforms), etc. have participated in the council.
The meeting to share the achievements of the council was arranged as an opportunity that the business entities, such as trademark owners, online media (platforms), etc., directly presented the results of hard work to prevent the distribution of counterfeit products including the council’s activity performance over the last one year. The online media (platforms) are 6 companies, Coupang, Naver Smart Store, Gmarket, Meta Korea, AliExpress, et al.
Especially, in this year, the small conference body by industry has been organized and operated in the council, thereby preparing a foundation to establish measures suitable for each industry to prevent the distribution of counterfeit products and to share appropriate suggestions and information.
The small conference bodies are famous trademarks (brands), small and medium or midsize trademarks (brands), clothing (fashion), sports, household goods, amusement (entertainment), online media (platforms), etc.
Through ‘online counterfeit cooperative monitoring’ in which Korea Intellectual Property Protection Agency, trademark owners and online media (platforms) participated together, the member companies of the council got the effect of preventing consumer’s damages of 2.5 trillion Korea Won by the measures to suspend sales of about 55,000 cases of counterfeit products in only the first half of this year. The member companies are known as being active in proposing, through about 10 meetings, to establish an integrated reporting center for business people.
The participants evaluated that the council has contributed to the protection of a trademark right and the establishment of a sound commercial order by sharing the information of distribution of counterfeit products and through the cooperative monitoring, the brief meetings, education activities, etc.
KIPO presented the ‘creation of a private-centered ecosystem to prevent distribution of counterfeit products’ as the next year’s public-private cooperation direction’ and decided to try ① to strengthen the activities of the small conference bodies reflecting characteristics by industry and ② to establish the integrated reporting center for business people such that trademark owners and online media (platforms) can efficiently share the information of counterfeit product distribution.
6. Take the lead in autonomous driving technology by patent analysis!
- KIPO held a 2023 forum of patents and technologies for the advancement of competitiveness of autonomous driving.
- The forum was to share the latest patent applications related to autonomous driving and the technology development trends thereof.
KIPO and Korea Association of Autonomous Mobility Industry (KAAMI) jointly held a 2023 forum of patents and technologies for the advancement of competitiveness of autonomous driving on December 4, 2023.
About 50 experts of the KIPO’s autonomous driving patent research council and the autonomous driving industry participated in this forum which was a place to explore the direction of autonomous driving-related technology development from the point of view of a patent.
In the forum, the participants shared the latest patent application trends of the autonomous driving technology and the technology development trends thereof. KIPO also provided the analysis results of patents regarding not only an autonomous driving detector and a driver information collection system (monitoring system) which are the core technologies of autonomous driving but also an urban air transportation (mobility) which has become an issue. The forum was also to share the autonomous driving technology business cases of the relevant companies and to introduce customized patent strategies for autonomous driving industry for companies.
The direction of the Digital Convergence Examination Bureau of KIPO emphasized, “in the autonomous driving industry that has recently entered a period of industrial restructuring, it is more important than anything else for companies to actively prepare for the market by predicting the direction of the future market based on the patent and technology trend analysis”. The director also said, “we expect that the forum will be helpful in future technology development and patent strategy establishment in the autonomous driving industry.”
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