Submission to the Supreme Court on olanzapine patent

Written submission on olanzapine patent was filed to the Korean Supreme Court, which was officially accepted by the Court on October 31, 2019. PDF documents of the submission are available at here and here (all in Korean). The submission was endorsed by five CSOs (Knowledge Commune, Commons Foundation, Center for Health and Social Change, Association …

Olanzapine patent dispute: Who is responsible for a price reduction made under the National Health Insurance System?

Eli Lilly’s patent on olanzapine product (Zyprexa) invoked a number of disputes with generic companies across the world. The main challenge of the generic companies is the lack of novelty or inventiveness of the patent. Some jurisdictions found the patent valid, and others first decided in favor of generics (for instance, Germany and Korea). In …

Administrative enforcement of IP: Lessons of KORUS for RCEP

Border Measures KORUS grants a power to the customs authorities to suspend release of suspected counterfeit or pirated goods into free circulation when a right holder requests to do so with “adequate evidence”. The suspension should be applied to “all points of entry to its territory” and remain applicable for at least one year. While …

Joint Statement of Korean Civil Societies on ISDS in RCEP negotiation

Trade Minister of South Korea should not undermine the ISDS reform objectives pursued by the Prime Minister On July 12, 2019, the Korean Prime Minister officially stated at the National Assembly that he “agreed to abolish investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS)”.[1] This remark is in line with the recommendation of UN human rights experts to UNCITRAL member …

Historical landscape of the intersection of human rights and intellectual property

IP has a short history for some attributes of which to be recognised as human rights. IP and human rights have different normative foundations and have developed in isolation. In the last few years, however, a great deal of literatures has discussed IP in terms of human rights. The intersection between HRs and IPRs can …

Stop Internet Censoring

We have seen many attempts to censor the Internet under the pretext of copyright protection. Notorious attempts are SOPA and PIPA of 2012, which triggered the largest online protest in history and was eventually withdrawn, and ACTA, a plurilateral trade deal killed by the European Parliament in 2012. Now, Korean government tries to enact a much stronger internet censoring rule. …