4 out of 10 patents in invalidation trials were cancelled last year
It was found that patents were canceled in four out of ten patent invalidation trials conducted in Korea last year. For secure patents, it is pointed out that it is urgent to increase the number of patent examiners and improve the efficiency of the patent examination system.
According to the "Patent invalidation status in Korea, the U.S.A., and Japan" report of October 6 that Lee Sung-man (Democratic Party of Korea), a member of the National Assembly's Trade, Industry, Energy, SMES and Startups Committee, received from the Korean Intellectual Property Office, 185 cases, which is 42.6% of the 434 patent invalidation trials in Korea, were affirmed last year. This is 1.8 times higher than the corresponding rate for competitors such as Japan (24.3%) and the United States (25.6%).
The affirmation rate for patent invalidation trials has exceeded 40% every year, recording higher of 45.6% (251 cases out of 511 cases) in 2018 and 55.2% (307 cases out of 556 cases) in 2019.
In comparison, Japan was 15.2% in 2018, 16% in 2019 and 24.3% in 2020, which is less than 20% on average over three years, while the United States was 25.2% in 2018, 24.9% in 2019 and 25.6% in 2020, which is relatively lower than Korea.
It is analyzed that Korea's high affirmation rate for patent invalidation trials was caused by the significant lack of examination personnel in comparison with the number of patent registrations.
The number of patent registrations in Korea has been steadily increasing from 119,000 in 2018 to 125,000 in 2019 and 134,700 in 2020. However, the average examination time per patent was 10.8 hours, less than that of Japan (17.7 hours) and the United States (27.4 hours). It was also low in comparison with Europe (35.7 hours) and China (21.3 hours) in 2019.
The number of annual examinations handled by one examiner at the Korean Intellectual Property Office reached 206, far exceeding the corresponding number in the U.S.A. (73 cases) or Japan (164 cases).
As a result, concerns are growing over the deterioration of patent quality and the sluggish activation of industrial property rights due to insufficient examinations. It is pointed out that for precise patent examinations, it is required to increase the number of patent examiners and improve the efficiency of the patent examination system.
Assembly member, Lee Sung-man said, "As the importance of industrial property rights increases, the patent examination environment is very poor in comparison with the number of patent registrations that has increased every year," adding, "We need to promote qualitative growth of patents by expanding the number of our examination personnel and strengthening their expertise."
[Source: Financial News]
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