Knowledge Commune mobilized legislators to propose a patent law amendment to make clear that medical treatment is excluded from patentable subject matter. The amendment was introduced in the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea on 3 March 2021. The amendment also aims to ban technologies seriously harmful to the environment from patenting. Medical …
Abstract Presumption of negligence in finding liability of patent infringements was introduced in the Korea Patent Act of 1974 by imitating the Japanese Patent Act amendment of 1959. Interestingly, the Japanese amendment was motivated by the UK Patent Act of 1949 which exempted the monetary liability of an innocent infringer. This was a misunderstanding of …
In Olanzapine patent disputes, the Supreme Court ruled as we claimed. See, decision in Lilly Korea v. Hanmi and decision in Lilly Korea v. Myung-In (all in Korean). The Court did not recognize that generic companies are liable for the reduction of upper price limit of patented product, Zyprexa (Olanzapine) even when the reduction was …
Abstract In order to implement the Korea-US FTA, the drug approval-patent linking system was introduced in the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act on March 15, 2015. Five-years implementation experience has provoked discussion for reforming the linkage system, and the government-led discussion focuses on procedural reform and the problems revealed in the operation of the system. However, since …
The linkage between patent status and drug approval process consists of two elements: notification and prohibition. The notification element refers to a mechanism in which a patentee is notified of the application of marketing approval of a generic product. The prohibition element refers to a mechanism in which a marketing approval of a generic product …
On 22 January, 2020, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety made open useful data: Pharmaceutical products to which patent rights ceased to exist but no generic competition. The data was retrieved from the “Green List” for linkage patents in Korea (FYI, EPO provides a guideline on how to search the Green List in English, …
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 …
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 …
One of the controversies in implementing the KorUS FTA is whether biological products are subject to the patent linkage obligation of the KorUS FTA. The debate was provoked by the Korean government’s proposal which applies the patent linkage to biologics. But it is unclear if the FTA text imposes such an obligation. Chapter 18 (IPRs) has no definition …
Abstract “Insider governance” of Patent Office is a keyword to explain a policy-making process of Korea patent system. The Korea patent policy has been made by a narrow group of experts within Patent Office which relies upon patent seekers for its income. This article calls for more critical assessment of the role of Patent Office …