Patent Attorneys Association to Take Strong Action Against Unauthorized Patent Activities

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The Korean Patent Attorneys Association is taking strong action to eradicate unqualified patent attorney activities.

The Association recently reported Company A, a prior art search firm, to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office on charges of violating the Patent Attorney Act and other laws, and on the 30th announced that it sent warning letters to about 10 suspicious companies that illegally performed patent-related work without qualifications.

According to the Association, Company A is the largest prior art search firm in Korea, primarily engaged in prior art searches.

However, the Association claims that this company has been illegally performing industrial property appraisal work such as registration possibility investigations, invalidity data investigations, and infringement data investigations under the name of "intellectual property total service," which goes beyond the scope of prior art search work.

In the complaint, the Association pointed out that Company A conducted appraisal work this year regarding design right infringement and appraisal work to determine whether there were invalidity reasons such as lack of inventive step in the inventions described in patent claims.

Such acts fall under appraisal work as defined in Article 2 of the Patent Attorney Act, and Company A, which does not have patent attorney qualifications, performing such work is a violation of related laws.

Additionally, about 10 companies that used promotional phrases such as "patent investment specialized company" and performed intellectual property application agency work including patents were sent warning letters to cease such activities.

The warning emphasized that performing intellectual property application agency work without qualifications violates the Patent Attorney Act and can result in imprisonment of up to five years or a fine of up to 50 million won.

Meanwhile, recently, bills aimed at eradicating unqualified patent attorney activities have been continuously proposed in the National Assembly.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.