Client Focus
During his visit to WIPO, Commissioner Kim met with Director General Francis Gurry of WIPO and the heads of the IP offices of the United States, Japan, China, and Europe to discuss the need to jointly respond to patent disputes which have been rapidly increasing recently. In particular, he asked WIPO to help solve international IP rights disputes through its Arbitration and Mediation Center.
With disputes like the Samsung Electronics–Apple and Kolon cases, it is evident that patent disputes are rising throughout the world at high costs for the involved companies. To solve this problem, Commissioner Kim proposed stronger international cooperation throughout the international IP system to cut the cost and occurrence of unnecessary patent disputes.
” In his general statement, Commissioner Kim pressed the need to narrow the IP gap for the sustainable development of the global IP rights system. With today’s knowledge-based economy, many developing countries realize the importance of IP, including patents, but are pessimistic about the expansion of their own IP systems and are concerned that only developed countries will truly benefit from IP. But without their agreement, the birth of new international standards is impossible. Already, discussions on the adoption of a design law harmonizing the design procedures of all countries are not progressing due to a lack of support of developing countries.
Commissioner Kim emphasized the need for developed countries and WIPO to actively participate in expanding the IP systems of developing countries in order to further spread the benefits of IP and continue the development of IP systems.
The heads of the major IP offices and the director general of WIPO agreed with Commissioner Kim’s opinions and decided to include “patent disputes” and the “resolution of the IP gap” as major issues of the WIPO agenda.
Additionally, KIPO released its educational IP animation, “Getting Creative with Pororo,”* which drew much attention and interest from the WIPO member states. KIPO also signed Patent Prosecution Highway working agreements with Hungary and Singapore to strengthen cooperation and expedite patent examinations in those countries.