Three Organizations Including the Patent Attorneys Association Hold Rally for "Normalization of the Professional Qualification System"

On the 2nd, professional license holders belonging to the Patent Attorneys Association, Tax Accountants Association, and Labor Consultants Association gathered in front of the Supreme Court to hold a rally. Photo by the Patent Attorneys Association

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The Korean Patent Attorneys Association announced on the 3rd that it held a rally in front of the Supreme Court together with the Korean Association of Tax Accountants and the Korean Association of Labor Consultants to urge the normalization of the professional qualification system.

About 200 professional qualification holders, including patent attorneys, attended the rally. The attendees claimed that the Supreme Court recently undermined the foundation of the professional qualification system by interpreting the Attorney-at-Law Act and other laws to allow law firms to perform all tasks of other professional qualification holders, such as tax adjustment work, which is the exclusive task of tax accountants, and trademark registration application representation, which is the exclusive task of patent attorneys.

They also pointed out the ruling that prohibited certified labor consultants from representing clients in wage arrears complaints, thereby hollowing out the scope of duties of certified labor consultants.

In this regard, the Patent Attorneys Association and others criticized, saying, “The recent rulings of the Supreme Court grant law firms the privilege to perform all exclusive duties of professional qualification holders through the ‘automatic qualification of attorneys’ and the unreasonable legal interpretation of Article 49, Paragraph 2 of the Attorney-at-Law Act.” They added, “This fails to understand the purpose of the professional qualification system to protect the rights and interests of the public and damages and obliterates the professional qualification system that has earned public trust in each specialized field over the past several decades.”

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