Prosecutors Indict CEO and Executives of Korea's Top Patent Search Service Company for 52 Counts of Unqualified Appraisals

Seocho-dong, Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office./Photo by Choi Seok-jin

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin, Legal Affairs Specialist] The CEO and executives of the country's top patent search service company have been brought to trial on charges of handling prohibited legal affairs dozens of times without qualifications as lawyers or patent attorneys.

The Criminal Division 12 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Lee Deok-jin) announced on the 26th that on the 24th, it had non-detained indicted three individuals, including W company CEO Mr. Lee, Patent Investigation General Manager A, and Trademark & Design Investigation General Manager B, for violating the Attorney-at-Law Act. The prosecution issued a non-prosecution disposition for practical staff.

W company is known as the nation's number one patent search service provider offering consulting related to intellectual property rights such as patents, trademarks, and designs to individuals and corporations.

Mr. Lee and others are accused of performing legal affairs such as appraisals related to the registration, invalidation, and infringement possibilities of patents, trademarks, and designs at the Korean Intellectual Property Office, beyond general patent investigation tasks like prior art searches and collection, analysis, and processing of patent-related information, 52 times from July 2018 to November 2020, receiving compensation from clients despite not being lawyers or patent attorneys.

Within the patent industry, there had been criticism that unqualified personnel who were neither lawyers nor patent attorneys at W company, a patent search service provider, were offering appraisal services related to registration, invalidation, and infringement possibilities at the Korean Intellectual Property Office. In November last year, the Korean Patent Attorneys Association filed a complaint with the prosecution against the CEO of W company and others on these charges.

The prosecution conducted raids on W company's Seoul headquarters and Daejeon branch in May this year and investigated related persons between June and November, concluding that the charges were substantiated.

A prosecution official stated, "The significance of this investigation lies in preventing the side effects of legal appraisal work by unqualified personnel whose expertise has not been verified and clarifying the scope of work between qualified professionals and private companies."

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