무제 문서
 
 
Home > Material Room > News Letter
 
 
 

Newsletter/August 25, 1999 No. 55

Precedents Guide for Patents to be Published

KIPO published a Precedents Guide for Patents that classifies precedents related to patents by point and subject matter. The guide covers, for example, novelty and inventive step from the National Foundation Day to the present. Accordingly, all concerned parts with patent applications and trials will be able to easily find precedents related to their invention or their assertion in the future. The new guide will also make it easier to perform procedures or assert an opinion in KIPO and the Patent Court.

Quasi-judicial power given to Officials to Crackdown on the Illegal Coping of Computer Software.

In the future, quasi-judicial power will be given to officials and organizations empowering them to crackdown on the illegal coping of computer software. Furthermore, if those who do habitually copy computer software illegally are exposed, they will be severely punished. The Ministry of Information and Communication plans to pass a revised version of the Computer Program Protection Law instituting the new quasi-judicial powers described above. This will be completed before the regular session of the National Assembly in order to protect intellectual property rights and crackdown on the illegal coping of software. According to the revised law, unlawful persons coping software will be punished by the officials or through such organizations as the Korean Software Property Right Protecting Committee (SPC) exercising their new quasi-judicial powers. At present, only prosecutors or policemen have the authority to crackdown on those persons coping computer software illegally. In addition, any act to upload or employ software that damages or removes devices inhibiting the illegal coping of software on a website or bulletin board will also be regarded as a copyright infringement and punishable under the revised bill.

As of September 1999, the discount rate for patent application fees will be expanded to medium and small enterprises and venture businesses, moreover, a technology transacting system to purchase and sell technologies with money will be activated. The Minister of Industry and Resource announced that discount rates for patent application fees would be raised from present 50% to 70% for the small businesses employing 50 or less people. The patent application fees for universities, institutes supported by the government, medium sized businesses employing 50 or more people will be reduced by 50% respectively. The minister is planning to organize a patent technology business association in order to enhance the cooperation between the Ministry of Industry and Resource, the Office for Small and Medium Industries and the Korean Industrial Property Office. The ministry is also planning to shorten the examination period from the present 26.6 months to 24 months until the end of this year.

The Number of New Registrations for Industrial Property Rights has Increased Considerably.

The number of new registrations for industrial property rights like patents and utility models has increased rapidly this year. According to KIPO's report, the number of registrations for domestic industrial property rights exceeded one million at the end of last year and will continue to increase beyond that number this year. In the first half of this year, 76,679 industrial property rights cases were registered. This represents a 26.5% increase, compared with those in the same<
 
 
 
 
무제 문서