KLP IP Firm

Korea and China to open a Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) - □ In commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the first Korea-China intellectual property (IP) heads meeting in November 1992, cooperation on IP between the two countries will be largely expanded. o (Patent Prosecution Highway) Commissioner Lee Soo-won of the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Commissioner TIAN Lipu of the State Intellectual Property Office of the People’s Republic of China (SIPO) at the 17th Korea-China heads meeting held in Beijing on November 2 (Wed) to open a Korea-China Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) and Patent Cooperation Treaty - Patent Prosecution Highway (PCT-PPH) starting 1 March 2012. - Commissioner Lee said, “There were 390,000 patent applications filed in China in 2010 (about 340,000 more than Japan) ranking it second in the world among patent filing countries. As such, the Chinese market has become increasingly important in terms o...

In Korea, medical procedure can not be patented. One of the requirements of patentability is industiral applicability. Medical procedures can't be patented in Korea because they are deemed to lack industrial applicability. Only medical instruments and supplies pertaining to surgery, treatment and diagnosis are patentable.

- Trademark applications increased by 11.9 percent year-on-year - □ Application Trends  A total of 91,225 IP applications were submitted during the second quarter of 2011, recording an increase of 4.8 percent year-on-year. - By type of rights, patents increased by 4.5 percent and trademarks by 11.9 percent, while designs decreased by 4.2 percent. ※ Utility models are continuously decreasing due to the pre-registration system and the discontinuation of the dual application system (▽ 9.6 percent).  By nationality, Korean and foreign applicants rose by 4.9 percent and 4.3 percent, respectively. - As for patents, Korean and foreign applicants rose by 4.4 percent and 4.7 percent, respectively. - By region, Ulsan recorded the highest rate of increase at 72.2 percent followed by Chungnam at 19.2 percent. - By countries of origin, Sweden increased by 24.6 percent and China recorded an increase of 19.4 percent.  By applicant, conglomerates and SMEs (small and medium enterprises)...

Whenever an examiner refuses an application, the applicant can simply request a reexamination after amending the description or drawing(s) . This process is permitted under the revised Patent Act. Previously, if an application was refused after examination, an applicant had to appeal the examiner's decision of refusal and amend the description or drawing(s) for examination before a trial. On the other hand, according to the revised Patent Act, an applicant does not need to appeal but simply request reexamination with amendment. Flow chart of a request for reexamination (application filed after July 1, 2009) ①Reasons for refusal from before the date of giving notice of the first refusal, but were not mentioned ②Reasons for refusal which were created by the amendments made after giving notice of refusal, but were not mentioned ③Reasons for refusal mentioned in previous notice of refusal Flow chart of a reexamination before a trial (for applications filed before June 30, 2009, and a...

Flow chart of an accelerated examination According to Article 61 of the Patent Act, the Commissioner of KIPO may have a particular category of patent applications examined ahead of the others. KIPO's regulation concerning the procedure for handling requests for accelerated examination provides that applications eligible for such expedited examination are limited to the following categories: (1) in case it is considered that an invention has been commercially worked by a person who is not the applicant, after his application has been laid-open; (2) in case the application is one of the kinds of applications stipulated in the Presidential decree and regarded as urgent (i) it relates to goods for defense industry and processes for the preparation thereof, as defined in the Special Measures Act Relating to Defense Industry (ii) it relates to facilities for the prevention of environmental pollution or a process thereof (iii) it is directly involved in the promotion of export as evidenc...

-18 companies in cosmetics, 15 in pharmaceuticals, and 12 in baked products as well as clothing and shoes- KIPO analyzed the top 100 holders of trademark rights over the past five years. The analysis included 91 domestic companies, 7 foreign companies, and 2 domestic individuals. The results showed that while trademark registrations by domestic companies (77) largely increased compared to five years earlier, those by foreign companies (19) and domestic individuals (4) dropped. Of the registration by residents of foreign countries, the United States led the results followed by Japan, Germany, France and China. Except for France, whose main products were cosmetics, the rest mainly had products in electricity and electronics. An analysis of the top 100 holders of trademark rights for products for five years from 2006 to 2010, except for the service mark, showed that the rights holders with the most registered trademarks (over 1,000 trademarks) were Amore Pacific (3,608), followed by...