Dear users,
According to information published by the Korean Patent Office, a comprehensive revision of the South Korean Patent Act will enter into force on 1 March 2017.
One of the most important provisions is the re-introduction of the post-grant opposition system. Similar to Japan in 2015, also Korea is going to re-introduce the post grant opposition system which had already existed before and was abolished in 2007. According to the new stipulations, any person may file a request for opposition within six months from the publication of the granted patent. Apart from requests for opposition, third parties may still file a request for invalidation at any time as before. In this way, third parties will have two opportunities to challenge a granted Korean patent. The main aim to re-introduce post-grant opposition was to implement an additional system to tackle patents which should not have been granted with the help of a public review. Moreover, the new opposition system is expected to be less complex and also cheaper than the existing invalidation procedure.
Further provisions include the following:
• Reduction of the time period to file a request for examination from currently five years from filing to three years from filing to accelerate the granting procedure.
• Introduction of an ex officio re-examination system. After taken a decision to grant a patent, the examiner may still withdraw his decision and starts a re-examination procedure ex officio in case he discovers clear reasons to reject the application. This re-examination is permitted in case the applicant has not yet made the first fee payments which triggers the registration of the granted patent.
• New procedure to determine ownership. According to the new regulations, a party claiming ownership rights may file a request to transfer the patent right to itself. Before, the party had to file a request for invalidation of the patent first and then file a new application. This procedure was a significant burden and very often discouraged a party from making its ownership claim.
In case of questions related to this topic, you can also post them here or you can contact us directly at asiainfo@epo.org
Your team for Asian patent information services
Korea:Comprehensive patent law amendment to enter into force
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