Patent Trial and Appeal Board Announces Call for Papers on Patent and Trademark Case Studies

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board announced on the 22nd that it will hold the "19th Patent and Trademark Case Law Research Paper Contest" from the 22nd of this month to September 20th.

The contest is held to promote a research culture on case law related to industrial property rights. Participants can enter with either designated topics or free topics.

Provided by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board

The designated topics include four cases selected by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board: ▲ Whether the court can ex officio examine and decide only on the specificity of the invention subject to confirmation (affirmative) and the criteria for determining the specificity of the invention subject to confirmation (Supreme Court ruling 2021Hu10725), ▲ Whether the effect of a public exception based on the original filing date can be recognized in a divisional application by asserting a public exception when it was not claimed in the original application (Supreme Court ruling 2020Hu11479), ▲ Whether the former trademark owner or a licensee authorized to use the trademark is also included as a "third party" when the trademark right has been transferred (Supreme Court ruling 2017Hu2178), ▲ The criteria for asserting a freely practiced design based on a publicly known design that served as the basis for applying the exception to loss of novelty in a confirmation trial (Supreme Court ruling 2022Hu10012).

Free topics can be any court case law other than the designated topics.

Anyone interested in intellectual property can participate in the contest as an individual or a team of two. To participate, applicants must download the relevant documents from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board website, complete them, and submit via email.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board plans to select six outstanding works through evaluation and review from October to November and announce the results in early December. The award ceremony is scheduled to be held in December. The grand prize winner (1 person) will receive the Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Award and a prize of 2 million KRW, the excellence award winners (2 persons) will receive the Commissioner of the Korean Intellectual Property Office Award and a prize of 1 million KRW each, and the encouragement award winners (3 persons) will receive the Commissioner of the Korean Intellectual Property Office Award and a prize of 500,000 KRW each.

Park Jong-joo, President of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, said, “The designated topics for the contest were chosen as cases that clearly clarify procedural requirements that need to be reviewed before substantive judgment,” and added, “We expect various opinions that can be used to establish trial standards to be presented through the contest.”