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The world¡¯s top 5 strong patent countries to gather in the Republic of Korea (hereinafter, referred to as ¡®Korea¡¯) (154)

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KH

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2008-10-16

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1. The world¡¯s top 5 strong patent countries to gather in the Republic of Korea (hereinafter, referred to as ¡®Korea¡¯)

- Korea, U.S., Japan, Europe and China agreed to hneet

The commissioners of the world¡¯s top 5 country patent offices, i.e., the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO; Commissioner: Jungsik KOH), the United States of Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the Japanese Patent Office (JPO), the European Patent Office (EPO) and the State Intellectual Property Office of the People¡¯s Republic of China, gathered in Korea to discuss the patent cooperation among the 5 countries.

On September 25, 2008, KIPO announced that the commissioners of the aforementioned 5 country patent offices gathered in Geneva, Switzerland on September 24, 2008 and agreed to meet in Jeju-island, Korea on October 27 and 28, 2008.

The 5 countries of Korea, U.S., Japan, Europe and China also referred to as the ¡°G5¡± countries in the intellectual property field, which hold 77% of the total number of patent applications in the world. An examination backlog due to a rapid increase in the number of patent applications which have been filed raises as a common issue, the necessity of mutual cooperation being steadily proposed.

Through the meeting of the commissioners of the patent offices of the 5 countries in Geneva, the 5 countries agreed to cope with the backlog of examination together. That is, they decided to positively promote work-sharing to perform examination work in their respective countries by using the results of examination performed in the other countries.

In the meeting of the commissioners of the patent offices of the 5 advanced countries to be held in Jeju-island, the 5 countries will discuss the vision and major directions of mutual work-sharing, the cooperation road map and the like and will officially announce the start of the cooperation among the 5 countries.

¡°When the work-sharing among the 5 countries is activated, the quality and efficiency of examination in each country will be improved. Further, as the patent examination environments in the 5 countries become similar to one another, it will be easier and more convenient for Korean people to obtain patents in foreign countries,¡± the commissions of KIPO, Jungsik KOH, said.


2. Government-owned patents can be used for free
- Government-owned patents which are not used for 3 years or more from their registration dates will be allowed to be used for free for one year, which is extendable for another year.

To promote the use of government-owned patents, KIPO is operating the ¡°system of using government-owned patents for free¡±. Under the system, anyone can use a government-owned patent which has been not used for 3 years or more from its date of registration for patents registered on or after April, 2006, for free for one year (which can be further extended for an additional year).

When a government official makes an invention while (s)he serves as the government official, the government is entitled to ownership of the invention, to file an application of the invention in the name of the government, and to register the invention as a patent/utility model/design. Then, the registered patent/utility model/design right is referred to as a government-owned patent.

According to the KIPO¡¯s report, the number of government-owned patents which havee been registered as of September, 2008 totals 1,879 (including 1,433 patents, 289 utility models, 118 designs and the others). The number of government-owned patents registered in foreign countries is 39. As about 220 government-owned patents are newly registered, the number of the cases kept as the government-owned patents is continuously increasing.

Classified by agencies making inventions, 1,031 (54.5%) cases are owned by the Rural Development Administration, 143 (7.6%), by the national Fisheries Research and Development Institute, 143 (7.6%), by the Korea Forest Research Institute, 89 (4.7%), by the National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service, 82 (4.4%), by the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards, and 391 (20.8%) by other government agencies.

Among the total number of the government-owned patents, in 2005 10.6% patent technologies were used by companies as non-exclusive licenses at some cost or for free in 2005, 12.2% in 2006, 14.0% in 2007 and 14.2% as of August, 2008, with an increase every year. This trend proves an increase of the companies which receive, at some cost or for free, the technology transfer of the ¡®best¡¯ patents having the possibility of commercialization among the government-owned patents.

The fact that the number of companies which are interested in the use of the government-owned patents increases is evaluated as a result of promoting the KIPO¡¯s strategies to obtain and to commercialize the technologies based on the intellectual property rights. Further, after a company uses the technology based on a government-owned patent for free and verifies the possibility of production thereof, the technology transfer can be converted at some cost. This is also considered as one of the advantages of the ¡°system of using government-owned patents for free¡±.

It is considered that, among the government-owned patents not used for 3 years or more, the number of the government-owned patents having excellent marketability and technobility is not small. Actually, KIPO performed, in the Technology Guarantee Fund, an appraisal of the value of patented technology with respect to 100 government-owned patents which were not used for 3 years or more from their registration dates. As a result, 19 patents were considered as having the excellent technologies being at the ¡°A¡± level or more with respect to the marketability and technobility.

As companies¡¯ interest in the government-owned patents continues, patent royalty revenues are steadily increasing. The royalty revenues which were 376,000,000 Korea Won in 2004 increased to 486,000,000 Korea Won in 2005, 635,000,000 Korea Won in 2006, 574,000,000 Korea Won in 2007, and 372,000,000 Korea won as of September, 2008.

¡°The system of using government-owned patents for free enables a licensee to freely use a government-owned patent, without any initial royalty. Thus, KIPO will continuously expand the system of using government-owned patents for free, to promote the use of government-owned patents and to contribute to the industrial developments,¡± the chief of the Industrial Property Policy Bureau, Changroyng KIM, said.


3. The weight of patent trials in the information technology (IT) fields greatly increased
- KIPO provided the results of analyzing patent trials for the recent 10 years

The number of patent trials in the IT fields which are Korean core exportation strategic industries rapidly increased over the last 10 years by 8 times. The weight of the patent trials in the IT fields compared to the weight of the total patent trails increased over the last 10 years by two times or more. Specifically, among the patent trials in the IT fields, the number of the trials in the computer and e-commerce fields held about 70%.

According to the ¡®Study and Analysis Collection of Patent Trial Cases in IT Fields¡¯, published by KIPO, as a part of the creation of ¡°powerful patents¡± and the intellectual property management strategies using the same, the total number of patent trials in the Patent Court of Korea and the Supreme Court increased from 325 to 1,115 during the period of 1999 to 2007, an increase of 3.4 times. Compared to this, the number of the patent trails in the IT fields increased from 19 to 152, an increase of 8 times. Thus, the weight of the patent trials in the IT fields to the total patent trials increased from 5.8% to 13.6%, an increase of more than 2 times.

Upon specifically reviewing the patent trials in the IT fields, the total number of trials brought against the actions of KIPO, where t ¡¡

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