1. The ‘Korea-USA Patent Examination Highway’ has been tentatively carried out from January 28, 2008
It will be easier to file a patent application in the U.S.A. and the application will be examined faster.
According to the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO: Commissioner: SangWoo JUN), the ‘Korea-USA Patent Examination Highway’ has been tentatively carried out from January 28, 2008. Under the ‘Korea-USA Patent Examination Highway’, when a patent application is filed in both of the Republic of Korea (hereinafter, referred to as ‘Korea’) and the U.S.A. and as a result of examination, a finding of patentability is made in either country, the application will be examined earlier than the other applications in the country which has yet to examine the invention.
When a Korean applicant files a patent application in Korea and the U.S.A. and a claimed invention in the patent application is granted as a patent in Korea, what advantages are provided in the case of requesting the use of the Patent Examination Highway in the USPTO?
The Patent Examination Highway is significant in the point that a Korean applicant can utilize in other countries the KIPO’s fastest examination process in the world. That is, in Korea, an examination result of a patent application is rendered generally within about 10 months after the application is filed. When the examination result is that the claimed invention is patentable, the applicant can file a request for use of the Patent Examination Highway with the USPTO. Accordingly, the application can be examined in the USPTO, faster by at least 13 months, compared to a general patent application without requesting the use of the Patent Examination Highway. In the U.S.A., the application using the Patent Examination Highway can undergo examination within 3 months, the shortest period, to 12 months while a general application is undergo the examination within 25 months on average.
After testing the Patent Examination Highway for one year from January 28, 2008 to January 28, 2009, the KIPO and the USPTO will decide whether to make the system permanent.
2. The KIPO revised patent examination standards of technology related to medical diagnosis
Most inventions relating to medical diagnosis methods are expected to be regarded as patentable from this year.
The KIPO has decided to allow an invention which is substantially regarded as a medical diagnosis method but does not include a ‘clinical judgment’, among inventions relating to medical diagnosis methods, to be patentable. On January 10, 2008, the KIPO announced that the revised ‘examination standards in the medical treatment and sanitation fields’ and ‘examination standards in the medicine field’ have come into effect from January.
Before the relevant examination standards have been revised, in principle, an invention relating to a medical method including surgery, treatment and diagnosis that a doctor conducts with regard to a human body could not be patented, considering an aspect of the public good of securing the medical use accessibility of people.
However, as biotechnological, electronic, optical and atomic technologies have been used in the medial field, the diagnosis techniques which do not include a doctor’s opinion are rapidly appearing.
According to the revised examination standards, an object to be patentable includes a method invention relating to the medical diagnosis which does not include a ‘clinical judgment’, that is, ‘mental practice to judge a state of disease or health, based on medical knowledge and experience’.
This is because methods of collecting, analyzing and measuring various data related to diagnosis can be protected as a patent in the revised examination standards if they do not include a ‘clinical judgment’.
However, when a method invention includes ‘an action of having a direct and non-temporary effect on the human body’ during the process of collecting necessary data for diagnosis even though it does not include a ‘clinical judgment’, the invention is not patentable because the action is considered as a medical action requiring a doctor’s direct measurement.
3. Samsung and Hynix will conduct joint-research of next-generation memory
Samsung Electronics and Hynix agreed to jointly develop a next-generation memory semiconductor and Samsung Electronics and LG Philips LCD agreed to participate in the development of a next-generation exposure system. Although these companies have been keenly competing against one another, they decided to participate in the joint-development because of the critical situation that the initiative will be taken away to Japan in the future unless they cooperate in the next-generation technologies.
On January 24, 2008, Samsung Electronics and Hynix had an R&D agreement ceremony to jointly participate in the source technology development project of a next-generation memory device which has been promoted by the Government and the academic world. Two companies decided to invest nine thousand million Korea Won for two years in the future and to cooperate by periodically exchanging the technologies and mutually evaluating the products of their studies.
Further, Samsung Electronics and Hynix purchased eight patents relating to a next-generation non-volatile memory (which retains data when power is disconnected) developed by the Government. These two companies, which have paid the royalties of several hundred million dollars to Intel (D-RAM) and Toshiba (NAND-Flash) every year, decided not to suffer such ‘distress’ in the next-generation memory field.
In the LCD field, a united front has been made by Samsung Electronics and LG Philips LCD to secure the next-generation source technologies. These two companies will jointly develop the core materials for a digital exposure system and an organic light-emitting diode (OLED).
4. Inje University transferred a patent technology to a cosmetics manufacturing company
On January 16, 2008, it is reported that Inje University, located at Kimhae, Gyeongnam, Korea, transferred, to a domestic cosmetics manufacturing company, the technology based on the results of research on the extract elements of dandelions which have inflammation control and anti-cancer properties.
On the same day, Biohealth Products Research Center (BPRC), which is an Industry-academic cooperation organization under Inje University, concluded the agreement of patent assignment and technology transfer with Skin Health Cosmetic Co., Ltd., which is a domestic company of middle standing, in the Inje global technology transfer center in Inje University.
In the agreement, Inje University agreed to transfer, to the cosmetics manufacturing company, the researched technology entitled “Cosmetic material composition containing dandelion extract having anti-oxidation and anti-inflammation effects and luteolin separated therefrom”, which is the registered patent owned by Inje University. The cosmetics manufacturing company agreed to donate 3% of the sales as royalty every year.
According to a spokesman of Inje University, the patent involved in the technology transfer relates to the technology of cosmetic material containing luteolin as an element extracted from dandelions, which controls an inflammation reaction and exhibits anti-oxidation, anti-cancer and anti-hardening of the arteries properties and therefore has high potential to be used in manufacturing functional cosmetics and in preventing various chronic diseases.
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