Korean Bar Association Welcomes Ruling Against Mandatory Single Patent Attorney Organization Membership, Urges Allowance of Multiple Groups

"From Application to Litigation, Handled by a Single Expert"


Expectations for a U.S.-Style Integrated Service Environment

The Korean Bar Association welcomed the Constitutional Court's decision of constitutional incompatibility regarding Article 11 of the Patent Attorney Act, and on April 30 called for follow-up legislation allowing the establishment of multiple patent attorney organizations.

The previous day, the Constitutional Court ruled that Article 11 of the Patent Attorney Act, which required all patent attorneys to join the Korean Patent Attorneys Association, was incompatible with the Constitution. Among the nine justices, three took the position that forcing mandatory membership in a single statutory organization infringes on fundamental rights. The remaining four considered the forced inclusion of attorneys who are also patent attorneys into one organization, given the unique occupational conflicts within the patent attorney community, as a violation of fundamental rights. The National Assembly must amend the relevant law by October 31, 2027.

As a direction for follow-up legislation, the Korean Bar Association proposed allowing the establishment of multiple patent attorney organizations. It also pointed out that the exclusive status of a single organization could suppress minority opinions. The association emphasized that merely making formal improvements to the current single-organization system is insufficient.

The Korean Bar Association stressed that this institutional reform is directly linked to public benefits. Currently, there are about 11,303 registered patent attorneys in Korea. Among them, approximately 5,975 are patent attorneys who also hold an attorney license, accounting for more than half. In the United States, more than 70% of patent practitioners are patent attorneys with law licenses, and it is known that one individual handles all processes from application to litigation. In Korea, due to structural limitations, a patent attorney who handled the patent application cannot directly represent the client in subsequent litigation. The client must appoint a separate representative at the litigation stage, resulting in double the cost and time.

The Korean Bar Association believes that permitting multiple organizations will create an environment where a single expert can handle application, examination, and litigation comprehensively. The association plans to actively participate in future legislative discussions to pursue institutional reforms.

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