Korean IP News
KOREA-first time IP infringers gets off the hook.
As Korea has become the top users of broadband in the world, it is inevitable that copyright infringements especially of music and movies, reached record levels. It is a teenager’s world, where it is not obvious that infringements have taken place as everyone seems to be doing it with free downloads. It just sounds right to download it from the internet.
As copyright holders are concerned with their bottom lines, and in view of their declining sales, more infringers have been brought to court. Unfortunately, most of the infringers are teens, and the Korean government felt that to bring to book such large numbers of their future leaders to conviction is unacceptable. Parents too are uncomfortable with their child being black listed even before they could come out to earn a living!
So a half way solution has been proposed by the authorities, in the form of letting off the hook for first time offenders. It is hoped that parents of such offenders will take the necessary action to warn their offspring to not commit further violations. It is a sort of second chance and hopefully, infringers will not be an issue any more. This law will come into effect from 1st March to 28th February 2010, and only apply to those of age 19 and below. Many aggrieved parents had to bribe prosecuting lawyers to get out the nasty situation brought on by their children! For year 2008, some 23,470 people were brought to the court for such offences, much of it unnecessary and could be averted. Should other countries follow the Korean example?
According to Korea’s Commissioner of Custom Services, Hur Yong-suk, Korea has become a victim of intellectual property right violations across the globe. In an interview with The Korean Times, he sited auto parts and information technology products have been illegally copied and sold as fakes around the world and even in Korea. For 2008, the loss was estimated at $25.3 billion, about 6 percent of the country's outbound shipments. These fakes are mostly manufactured outside of Korea, most probably in a nearby country and even blatantly smuggled into the country and sold for genuine part.
As Korea tightens its intellectual property enforcements, the country succeeded in getting them removed from the US IP violation watch list early April 2009. Among Asian countries, it was ranked as the best country in terms of IP protection. Korea has been trying to move forward in the intellectual property sector by going the road of strict enforcement for ten over years. It hopes to turn the country into a business friendly, law abiding state so that it will draw in more foreign investments. As a way to enlighten its citizen on the bad effects of fake goods on the economy and the name of the country, the custom department has been holding events throughout the country.
Korea pioneering new patenting system
Starting July 2009, The Korean Intellectual Property Office will pioneer a faster system of IP filing with its newly gazette act. Among the many changes, the new filing method will help speed up the filing of superior inventions or innovations that are deemed to be strategic to the Korean economy. It also involves a faster trade marking system for such products. From an internal survey, it was found that some important inventions were erroneously rejected or delayed due to bureaucratic largesse.
The change also provided added variety of inventions for consideration. Not only that, those inventions that had previously being rejected will have another chance of reconsideration, if not on the whole patent, then at least on part of the invention. Re-considered applications might not have to go through a patent examiner. For the first time in the world, the Korean IP Office will accept for fast tract patent passage on technologies that are low-carbon, green technology or any Eco-friendly inventions that are partly financed by the government. The patent passage might only take four months, two months less than the normal passage. Perhaps it is advisable to file your invention in Korea now, before anywhere else!
July 4, 2009
Complaints from adult moviemakers…
Korean police have been put in a spot because of complaints filed by a U.S. firm that manages the intellectual property rights for filmmakers against thousands of internet users in 10 police precincts in Seoul and Gyeonggi. The complaint is that these internet uses had illegally downloaded adult videos and put them up for sale. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, which had been instructed to take action, had instead pushed it to the State Prosecutor. The police believed that they have no jurisdiction over the matter as the files were neither academic nor artistic works. From the domestic law point of view, it gets no protection.
Meanwhile, the US firm that had lodged the complaint, and who represents about fifty US moviemakers, is preparing to file its complaint with higher authorities. They said it is a serious offence, and if it is not checked, will lead to the widespread posting among heavy down loaders using p2p systems. It was however not known how the down loaders got hold of these files, or when it occurs, or whether these files had been paid for. As Korea has the highest numbered of broadband users in the world, file sharing is a given, and it takes place at a speed that prevents good evidence from being collected for litigation purposes.
August 17, 2009.
Import Ban and fine
Starting July, the Korea Customs Service (KCS) will ban the importation of goods that is in violation of Korean intellectual property rights. This was authorized by the Korean Parliament and it came about as a result of a survey conducted on 2,107 local companies who strongly objected to imports that breached local patents and logos. It was estimated that the country lost about 270 million dollars in 2008 due to intellectual property infringements. A list of infringed products has been supplied to the customs department and from then on, importers in possession of such products will be heavily fined.
March 22, 2010.