The Scope of the 'Prosecutor-Linked Copyright Dispute Mediation System' Will Be Expanded

Three Years of Pilot Operation
175 Cases Referred, 57.7% Mediation Rate

On the 13th, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced that starting this month, the scope of the 'Prosecutor-Linked Copyright Dispute Mediation System (Prosecution Suspension System with Time Limit upon Committee Referral)' will be expanded nationwide to eighteen district prosecutors' offices and forty-two branch offices.

The copyright dispute mediation system is a system established under Article 114 of the Copyright Act, where a mediation committee composed of specialized lawyers, professors, and others resolves disputes quickly and fairly when copyright conflicts arise. It began in 1988 with a form where disputing parties directly applied for mediation to the committee.

The scope of application has been continuously expanded with the introduction of 'court-linked mediation (2013)', where courts refer copyright litigation cases, and 'prosecutor-linked mediation (2021)', where prosecutors refer cases for mediation. The committee handled 4,513 mediation cases up to last year and resolved 1,677 of them.

The prosecutor-linked copyright dispute mediation system was piloted in December 2021 with the participation of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office and the Daejeon District Prosecutors' Office. Over the past three years, prosecutors referred 175 criminal cases to the committee, achieving a mediation rate of 57.7%. This helped prevent the expansion of damages to copyright holders due to prolonged litigation and unnecessary waste of investigative resources, thereby reducing social costs.

Jung Hyang-mi, Director of the Copyright Bureau at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said, "As the copyright industry develops and awareness increases, related disputes are also rising. We will cooperate with related agencies such as the Supreme Prosecutors' Office to resolve disputes early and establish a healthy industrial ecosystem."

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