Appeal to High Court
The losing party may appeal the district court decision to a high court (a court of appeal). A notice of appeal must be filed within 14 days of the receipt date of the court decision. The appeal period cannot be extended. When a notice of appeal is filed, the district court will send all documents to the court of appeal, which dockets and schedules the case. Then, the court of appeal orders the appellant to submit an appeal brief.
There is no limit on grounds of appeal. The court of appeal will review the case on de novo basis including factual errors and legal errors. An appellee will submit an opposing brief to an appeal brief. Both parties may submit new arguments and new exhibits during the appeal procedure. After exchanging briefs, the court set oral hearings. Usually it takes less than 1 year to a judgment in an appeal court.
Final Appeal to the Supreme Court
The losing party in an appeal proceeding may appeal the decision of the appeal court to the Supreme Court. The notice of re-appeal to the Supreme Court must be filed with the appeal court within 14 days from the receipt date of the high court decision, which is not extendible. Again, the court of appeal will send the documents of the case to the Supreme Court.
The court dockets the case and order the petitioner to submit a final appeal brief within 20 days from the receiving date of the court order. The period cannot be extended and the case will be dismissed if the final brief has not been filed within the period. The opposing party will be served the final brief the Supreme Court, and then can submit a rebuttal brief within 10 days of the date of the service. Exempting extraordinary circumstances, there is no oral hearing in the Supreme Court.
After briefs, the Supreme Court will review the final brief of the petitioner and the opposing brief of the respondent, and will decide whether the case will be fully reviewed by a panel of 3 or 4 justices.
The Supreme Court reviews only matters of law and therefore a matter of fact cannot be appealed to the Supreme Court. In case the appeal is based on factual errors of the low courts, the case will be dismissed within 4 months. Even though the appeal is directed to legal errors of the low courts, due to the excessive number of appeals to the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court can dismiss the appeals if the decision follows the statutes and precedents. It is called a refusal of further consideration in the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court has given deference to the decisions of the Patent Court, and the Korean patent court plays the final decision maker as a matter of practice like the CAFC in the U.S.
