The number of patent applications in Korea has steadily increased in 5 recent years. According to statistics from KIPO, the number of patent applications in 2013 was 204,589 that was 8.6% increase compared to that of 2012. 44,894 new patent applications among them were filed by foreign applicants. It has increased by 11.7% compared with the numbers during the same period in 2012. We could observe the steady increases in the numbers of patent applications from foreign applicants by in recent 5 years that ranges from 5.8% to 11.7%.
Considering the background of such steady increases, we could observe that many Korean companies became key players in the world's major manufacturers and sellers of smartphones, semiconductors, display panels, TVs, etc. Accordingly manufacturers of parts and raw materials have critical interests in Korean market, too. Naturally they need IP protection about their businesses in Korea and have filed more patent applications in Korea.
Showing posts with label ICT. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ICT. Show all posts
Benefits on Prior Art Search to Korean Language Documents in ICT Fields
Korea becomes one of the largest pools of patent publications in the world. In every year, KIPO receives over 350,000 domestic patent applications with specifications written in Korean. Furthermore, Korea already had the largest number of patent applications per year in the world in several technology fields.
1. Market Trend
a. Mobile Phone
Samsung extended its lead in the overall mobile phone market as well, selling more than one in four phones worldwide in the third quarter of this year. While Apple’s market share in the worldwide mobile phone market increased slightly, the pricing of the new iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c in both mature and emerging markets failed to entice consumers as hoped. The table shows a recent market trend of smartphone sales.
b. Embedded OS
In the smartphone operating-system market, Android continued to dominate the industry with more than 80 percent of the market's share in the third quarter of 2013. And, while Apple's iOS and BlackBerry suffered a drop in their worldwide market shares, Microsoft’s Windows Phone showed significant growth, albeit from a low base.
c. Digital / Smart TV
Samsung’s nearest competitor, LG, registered a 14.4 percent market share of Smart TV shipments. Although Sony ships fewer Flat Panel TV (FPTV) units than LG, it has been aggressive in its efforts to add Smart TV capabilities to nearly all models it currently offers, which helped Sony capture another 14.3 percent of the Smart TV market.
Samsung and LG have done well in growing their overall FPTV market shares while also refreshing their line-ups with more high value-added products like Smart TVs that have slowed ASP decline at these two companies. Not coincidentally, both companies witnessed a surge in Smart TV market share in the same period.
2. Patent Applications Trend in Recent 5 Years
a. Mobile Phone/Embedded OS Fields
b. Digital TV Field (excluding display panel technology)
3. Korean Patent Documents as Prior Art Pool
Accordingly, it is certainly necessary to search and review patent publications in Korean for prior art searches. Nonetheless, it is really difficult to fully understand Korean texts because Korean is a language far remote from English. Usually it has been our experience that we can often find a critical prior art written in Korean that was never considered during patent examination in EPO or USPTO.
Search is not simple. Rather it requires expertise in strategy and deep understanding of technology. We have been entrusted for prior art search by large companies who have multinational patent litigations. Our experienced experts can provide high value-added search strategy and results for analyzing and compiling of patent database information. We have a lot of search and analysis experiences in smart phones, digital TV, video data processing, etc.
Apple v. Samsung re: antitrust issues on SEPs in Korea Fair Trade Commission
Apple filed a complaint against Samsung to the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) which is the South Korea’s antitrust authority on April 3, 2012 alleging that Samsung abused standard-essential patents (SEPs). Apple asserted that Samsung’s lawsuit to seek injunction based on standard-essential patents during ongoing negotiations between two parties violated the Korean Antitrust Law. In particular, Apple contended in their complaint that Samsung misused SEPs for 3G wireless technology to gain an unfair advantage over the competition because these SEPs were supposed to be licensed under fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms to Apple.
On February 25, 2014, however, KFTC rejected Apple’s complaint. KFTC pointed out that Apple was first to file a patent lawsuit against Samsung and was responsible for following litigations in some aspects; and that Samsung tried to resolve disputes with the standard-essential patents based on the FRAND licensing terms. KFTC concluded that Samsung's lawsuit was a legitimate act to protect its patent rights.
Canon v. Baiksan OPC – Patent Owner Canon Awarded US$14 million Damage for Patent Infringement in Korea
The patentee Canon filed many lawsuits against Korean companies. Canon alleged that local companies’ manufacturing and marketing of several printer cartridges for use in Canon and other branded printers infringed Canon’s patents. While local companies challenged validities of Canon’s patents, Canon saved their patented claims from invalidity challenges finally.
On June 7, 2013, the district court of Seoul Central District held that Canon’s patents were infringed and ordered that the defendant, Baiksan OPC must stop manufacturing and selling cartridges and further destroy infringing finished or half finished products. Further, the court awarded Canon about US$14 million as damage compensation.
There are 3 ways to compute damage amount under Article 128 of the Korean Patent Act. Among 3 ways of lost profit of the patent owner, infringer’s unjust profit and a reasonable royalty, the court applied the second method based on infringer’s unjust profit for Canon’s damage compensation.
According to Article 128, paragraph 2, it is possible for a patentee to seek damages based on the profit of infringer. The profit of infringer in the provision should be the actual profit that is the amount of money in which all costs are subtracted from the total sales. The cartridges were exported to foreign markets and the customs had records of sales. The patentee may obtain such data or real records through a court order. Accordingly, the only issue for computing damages in canon case is profit ratio of infringing goods.
In principle, a plaintiff can proves the profit with account data of an infringer. However, it is not easy to figure out accurate data because the infringer does not have a single item and thus can reduce the profit by allocating costs to the subject item. Sometimes the data produced by an infringer are not reliable, too.
Usually the patentee has used the balance sheets of infringers. However, the profit computed by such balance sheets cannot be accurate because the balance sheet of a company reflects final outcome of total business activities rather than a single subject product. As an alternative option, a patentee may use an official statistic number of the government. The tax department of the Korean government noticed an official data regarding an average profit ratio per each business area every year.
According to the official notices, average profits for periods of infringements were 10% for computer printer fields. Under the Korean patent law, courts have discretion to determine a moderate amount of damage to prevent non-compensation to a patentee even though the infringement is found but no sufficient evidence to prove an amount of damage exists. It eases the patentee’s burden of proof. Based on the provision, the district court computed damage of Canon’s patent infringement through the total sales of infringement x 10%. The total amount of US$14 million is a quite big number in the history of patent infringement litigation in Korea.
KFDA Guidance on Mobile App for Medical Use
KFDA* announced that the Safety Guidelines for Mobile Medical Applications should be applied on December 31, 2013. The gist of guideline is summarized as follows:
1. Subject App
All mobile platforms including smartphone, tablet PC and smart watch for the medical use may be subject to the guidelines. But the scope shall be limited to the Apps whose use meets the definition of a medical device under Article 2 of the Medical Device Act.
According to KFDA, the guidelines would be applied to the apps below:
A. Apps that remotely control medical devices
B. Apps that display, store or analyze data acquired from medical devices
C. Apps that transform the mobile platform into a medical device by using attachments such as electrodes or sensors
D. Apps that act as a medical device by using sensors within the mobile platform
E. Apps that perform patient-specific analysis and provide diagnosis or treatment recommendations.
2. Required Marketing Approval
Before launching a mobile medical app, the publisher shall obtain market approval from KFDA. It is required as like a medical device. It must meet the safety requirements of KFDA guidelines; i.e., Criteria and Standards for the Electrical and Mechanical Safety of Medical Devices, Criteria and Standards for Electromagnetic Safety of Medical Devices, Standard of Medical Device Software Validation, etc.
Furthermore, the applicant must meet the guidelines about the activities to collect, store and process personal medical information. He or she must protect personal information properly pursuant to the KFDA Guidelines of Approval and Examination of U-Healthcare Medical Devices.
* KFDA officially changed its name to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) in March 2013.