Current Korea Patent Court System,
compared to that of the U.S.A.
Pilot
program
Issue 1: 1st instance
consolidation
• U.K.: 2 special patent courts (Patents Court
& Patents County Court)
• France: special divisions in 1 court (Paris
district court)
• Switzerland & Taiwan: 1 special patent court
• Japan: special divisions in 2 courts (Tokyo &
Osaka district courts)
• Korea??: (1) 2 special courts in Seoul &
Daejeon or (2) special divisions in 2 courts
(Seoul & Daejeon district courts)
Issue 2: Subject Matter Jurisdiction of
the 1st instance court
• U.K. & Taiwan: intellectual property (IP)
cases: patent, trademark, design, copyright,
etc.
• Switzerland & France: patent cases
• Japan: technological cases: patent, utility
model, semiconductor layout, certain unfair
competition cases
• Korea??: (1) technological cases or (2)
industrial cases, patent, utility model, design,
trademark, which are handled now by the
Korea Patent Court (Italian style)
Issue 3: Patent Agent’s Right to
Represent
• (Would-be) European Unified Patent Court, Switzerland
& U.K. (Patents County Court): a patent agent by
herself can represent the case
• France & Taiwan: only an attorney-at-law can represent
• Germany: only an attorney-at-law can represent, but a
patent agent has the right to state his opinions in the
court
• Japan: an attorney-at-law can represent, but with her, a
certain patent agent can co-represent
• Korea??: (1) German style (only statement right) or (2)
Japanese style ( joint representation)
Patentee Winning Rates
in Major Countries
•
1
Patentee Winning Rate ((David Hill, Global Enforcement & Exploitation of IP, 2007))
US
1997-2005
# of patent litigations filed
% of cases going to trial
1997-2004 Win Rate
20241
3.65%
59% overall
67% jury
2
China2
10446
80% invalidity
34% infringement (2002-04)
33%
3
Germany2
6850
45% invalidity
80% infringement
33%
4
France2
2762
43%* (1196)
55%
5
Japan
1623
35% (565)
20% (112/565)
6
Italy2
12002
11%2 (135)
40.7%
7
G. Britain
752
16% (121/752)
26% (21/82)(1997-2005)
8
Canada
625
6% (37)
35.4%
9
Switzerland2
5502
20%2 (108)
85%
10
Australia
316
16% (51)
31%
11
Netherlands2
3002
70%2 (213)
51% (2002-2004)
Korea
Estimated to be about
40/year3
Believed to be over 50%
(to be determined)
Estimated to be about 26%
(50% inf. x 52% validity)
Taiwan = 11.6%?