Court Dismisses Appeal Against Mitsubishi Patent Seizure Order

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, a wartime company that has not complied with compensation rulings for forced labor victims, appealed against the court's seizure order but the appeal was dismissed.

According to the legal community on the 16th, the Civil Appeals Division 1 of Daejeon District Court (Presiding Judge Na Kyung-sun) recently dismissed Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' appeal against the seizure order of patent rights filed by forced labor victims.

The court stated, "There is a Supreme Court ruling that enforcement claims cannot be subject to the Korea-Japan Claims Agreement," and added, "Mitsubishi Heavy Industries argues that there are obstacles to (forced enforcement) such as the arbitration procedure by the arbitration committee under the Korea-Japan Claims Agreement not being conducted, but these circumstances cannot be considered as obstacles." It is known that the court sent the official copy of the dismissal decision to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries on the 10th, before the Lunar New Year holiday, after issuing the dismissal on the 9th.

Earlier, forced labor victims and their families filed a damages lawsuit against Mitsubishi Heavy Industries at the Gwangju District Court in October 2012, and in November 2018, the Supreme Court confirmed a ruling ordering "the defendant to pay 100 million to 150 million KRW in consolation money per plaintiff."

Subsequently, the victims proceeded with the seizure of two trademarks and six patents in Korea through the Daejeon District Court on March 22, 2019, against Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which delayed the enforcement of the ruling, and applied for a sales order. The claim amount is 804 million KRW for four plaintiffs, excluding one deceased plaintiff.

Meanwhile, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries filed an immediate appeal in December last year, objecting to the Daejeon District Court's decision to issue the seizure order through public notification.

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