According to the 'Status of Patent Invalidation in Korea, the United States, and Japan' received from the Korean Intellectual Property Office by Rep. Lee Seong-man of the Trade, Industry, Energy, SMEs and Startups Committee on the 6th of October, it was confirmed that 185 cases, 42.6% of the 434 granted patents were revoked on the trial on invalidation of a patent last year. It is analyzed that the high citation rate for patent invalidation trials in Korea is due to the insufficient number of examination personnel compared to the number of patent registration applications. The number of patent registrations in Korea is steadily increasing from 119,000 in 2018 to 125,000 in 2019 and 134,700 in 2020. However, the average examination time per patent was 10.8 hours, which is less than the examination time in Japan (17.7 hours) and in the United States (27.4 hours). The examination time is also lower than Europe (35.7 hours) and China (21.3 hours) in 2019.

Assemblyman Lee Seong-man said, "Even though the importance of industrial property rights increased, the patent examination conditions are very poor compared to the number of patent registrations that increase every year." 

Also, it has been argued that the evaluation of the intellectual property (IP) such as patents is different for each evaluation institution, so the quality of IP evaluation should be managed. However, the Korean Intellectual Property Office is of the opinion that the amount of IP evaluation for guarantee and IP evaluation for investment may be different due to the different models applied, but it is not appropriate to evaluate the value according to the related financing method rather than the intrinsic value in the nature of IP evaluation. Rep. Jeong Tae-ho emphasized, “In the era of the 4th industrial revolution and technological supremacy, promotion of technology startups is more important than anything else. If the evaluation is inconsistent, there is a risk that the social trust in the evaluation itself will be undermined,”. He continued, “The government has a responsibility to manage and enhance the quality of IP evaluation through effective actual condition inspection and standard evaluation guidelines.”

Reference: https://www.fnnews.com/news/202110061345554821

https://www.etnews.com/20211007000094

While some countries such as the United States and Australia follow the “first-to-use” regime, most of the world including Korea follow the “first-to-file” rules. Therefore, being the first-to-file for trademark registration will be a wise decision.

At Law-Win Lawfirm, we have Intellectual Property-specialized attorneys that can help not only to register for patents, utility models, and trademarks but also support filling a petition for trials.

To read WIN case related to IP Law: https://lawwinglobal.com/media/caseResults.php?boardid=case&mode=view&idx=147&sk=&sw=&offset=&category=