Source : KIPO
Date   : Dec. 23, 2009

Following the development of domestic state-of-the-art industries, many advanced countries have their eyes on our main export items to secure relevant patents first. Most Korean companies are, however, failing to deal with such international patent rights conflicts due to their lack of information on such disputes. Luckily, leading cases of IP right disputes in the US, Japan, and Germany can be reviewed at one website. 

The Korea Intellectual Property Office (KIPO-Commissioner Koh, Jung-Sik) has announced that it will establish database of IP rights dispute precedent raised in the IP5 (US, Japan, Europe, Korea, and China) and provide such IP precedent at (www.ip-case.or.kr) from Dec. 15, 2009, without charging any fees. 

The number of patents related with lawsuits against Korean companies raised in the US, Japan, China, and other major advanced countries has sharply increased to 100 cases as of late November 2009, up from 54 cases in 2006, 49 cases in 2007, and 80 cases in 2008. This uptick is expected to accelerate as more Korean companies have expanded their global market share. 

Accordingly, KIPO has first established the database of patent right's dispute cases of state-of-the-art technology areas (semiconductors, displays, wireless communication, medical supplies, vehicles, and shipping) which are the most frequently conflicted areas among IP5-IP leading cases. The database will be set up with a total of 3,000 leading cases of 1,000 domestic lawsuits and 2,000 of the latest IP5 precedents, including 850 cases of overseas lawsuits already secured through international patent conflict map business.

The IP precedent integrated portal site provides also the original texts and translated versions of abstract of judgment that have information on case titls, concerned parties, and bibliographic information as well as legal issues and judgment points, aiming to support the understanding and search of overseas leading cases. It also offers a visualized leading case map with information on relevant upper and lower courts, cited leading cases, and patent/prior technology information. 
In addition, the website will provide other diverse search functions by legal issues, industrial technology, IPC classification, and other additional services such as a thesaurus search engine, cross language search function for Korean, Japanese, and English, and pop-up dictionary functions linked with international patent dispute terminology and a legal dictionary.

“The newly opened IP precedent information website will improve the accessibility of IP conflict information on IP rights disputes and help to intensify domestic companies' preparation capability against international patent conflicts (e.g. establishing of a lawsuit strategy)," said an official from KIPO. 

KIPO plans to establish a greater database holding a total of 22,000 cases of IP dispute leading cases at home and abroad, including the current 3,000 leading cases by the year 2013. It will also offer a comprehensive service by expanding its relevant information (journal, thesis) search functions.