Meeting with a Co-representative of the National Promotion Committee for the World Intellectual Property (IP) Hub and the Member of the National Assembly Seo Byungsoo.

Co-representative of the National Promotion Committee for the World Intellectual Property (IP) Hub and the member of the National Assembly Seo Byungsoo(People Power Party 5th term)

Under the slogan of Koreas IP News to the World and Worlds IP News to Korea Representative of WIPNEWS Gim Soo-Woo and Park Jin-ha Chief Steering Committee member of KAIST Advanced Intellectual Property Strategy Program(AIP) visited the National Assembly on the 9th to commemorate the foundation of WIPNEWS which is about to be published on the 10th.

They met Co-representative of the National Promotion Committee for the World Intellectual Property (IP) Hub Seo Byung-Soo(Member of the People Power Party) and talked about Direction of IP of Korea and World Intellectual Property News WIPNEWS.

Q1. Representative Gim : You were the co-representative of the National Promotion Committee for the World Intellectual Property (IP) Hub. First of all I would like to know your plan as like I want to lead the National Promotion Committee for the World Intellectual Property (IP) Hub in this way.

▲ Member of the Assembly Seo Byungsoo : The Republic of Korea first enacted the 「Copyright Law」 in 1957. Although 63-year is such a short time in the history of world intellectual property rights but great pride arises because Korea has a high stature to promote the World Intellectual Property (IP) Hub.

In addition I know that the National Promotion Committee for the World Intellectual Property(IP) Hub has started in 2014 and has made a lot of efforts such as protecting intellectual property rights at the National Assembly level and reinforcing punitive measures against technology leakage.

I take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the members of the ruling party and opposition lawmakers including the members of the National Assembly Jung Gap-yoon and Won Hye-young who have been working hard as joint representatives. It is an honor and a I feel a big responsibility to be a new co-representative with the member of the National Assembly Lee Sang-min in the 21st National Assembly.

The advent of the era of the 4th industrial revolution represented by hyper-connection and super-intelligence through new technologies. At its core new technologies such as big data AI and 5G will be at the center and we will look into whether the technical and economic value of these data and algorithms is being properly evaluated under the Framework Act on Intellectual Property and how much can be protected.

Q2. Committee Member Park : Korea has got 200000 patents annually followed by China (1380000) US (600000) and Japan (310000) ranking 4th in the global intellectual property market. However there are many opinions that it is still in its infancy in terms of activating intellectual property rights and there are few useful patents. What do you think about these opinion?

▲ Member of the Assembly Seo Byungsoo : It is said that among the large companies with leading technology they do not apply for a patent on the developed high technology. It is said that new technology announcements and registration of international patents are led to duplication. That is there are many patents but there are also many patent thieves.

Prevention of such patent thieves needs efforts not only to improvement of the quality of examination but also reliable protection of registered patents. For this it is most important to recruit competent examiners and to train experts of patent protection.

Next the technology trading market is needed which wakes up sleeping patents. Japan is already competing for supremacy in technology by actively conducting technology trading in ASEAN and China and it is a reality that Japan is enjoying enormous economic effects.

Korea needs to make efforts to keep up with future technology competition based on revitalization of international technology transactions and financial transactions through intellectual property.


Member of the Assembly Seo Byung-soo (Left) Commitee member Park (Center) and Representative Gim (right) are having a meeting at the National Assemblys office of Seo Byung-soo on the 9th.
Q3. Representative Gim: Last time the National Promotion Committee for the World Intellectual Property (IP) Hub argued to establish a separate department to integrate and manage national intellectual property policies.

In the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution it has argued that a control tower of intellectual property is needed in order to adjust the policies of each ministry and manage from the creation of intellectual property to commercialization. What do you think?

▲ Member of the Assembly Seo Byungsoo : Currently there is a Presidential Council on Intellectual Property with the Prime Minister as its chairman and the Ministers and Vice Ministers of the relevant departments as governmental members. However since the Intellectual Property Strategy Planning Team is affiliated to the Ministry of Education Science and Technology so the committees status is low and its authority is insufficient and it has not been able to properly manage and coordinate intellectual property policies scattered around the departments.

There is a desperate need for intellectual property governance that can focus and process intellectual property work more efficiently and accommodate changes in the era of the 4th industrial revolution. According to the basic principle of technology policy Change and innovation are led by the private sector and the maintenance management and sustainability efforts are led by the government it is necessary to establish an intellectual property control tower.

Currently the People Power Party is also very interested in the Data Agency a control tower that will manage public data and it can also lead to the development of new technologies which process data that are poured out from the development of Internet of Things (IoT) technology. It will be able to be one of those kinds of institutions.

In the private sector the demand for businesses realted to the management of personal data is increasing based on data sovereignty that manages and controls own information and the introduction of a data exchange that can lower the entry barrier of the business and collect process and distribute private data is also necessary to be considered.

Valuing and using a new commodity called data will be one of the new changes since the 4th Industrial Revolution and governmental policies that actively respond and utilize this need should be supported.

Q4. Committee Member Park : Specifically it was strongly argued that the Intellectual Property Secretary Department should be established in the Blue House and the Ministry of Intellectual Property or the Office of Intellectual Property should be established. What do you think about it?

▲ Member of the Assembly Seo Byungsoo : The form of intellectual property rights is also diversifying and changing rapidly with the emergence of new intellectual property rights such as layout design rights variety protection rights trade secrets and database rights.

I think that in the field of reorganizing the administrative organization and business the proposition redefining intellectual property in accordance with the changing times is a priority.

Im planning to propose to the government to expand the organization of the Intellectual Property Office to the Office of Intellectual Property or tie industrial property rights and copyrights into one administrative system through the establishment of an intellectual property secretary department in the Blue House. It is a matter that requires sufficient discussion.

Q5. Representative Gim :Lastly this is a question related to WIPNEWS. WIPNEWS was created to easily inform intellectual property to the public and help Korea become a hub of patent in the world. It is an intellectual property news platform that provides IP-related news in Korean and is scheduled to be launched on July 10th. In your opinion What kind of role would WIPNEWS do in the future? Please tell some advice or words of blessing.

▲ Member of the Assembly Seo Byungsoo : First of all congratulations on the launch of the international portal specializing in intellectual propertyWIPNEWS. I would like to ask you to faithfully play the role of the media and I hope that it will be a specialized journal that can predict changes and suggest directions through leading research and statistical analysis and deliver accurate information to readers please.

Korea is ranking 4th in the global intellectual property market with many patents and in line with its status I hope it cooperates with worlds patent-related organizations and the media to promote domestic technology to the world and deliver international trends to Korea. I hope it will establish itself as a global intellectual property channel worthy of its name.

Congratulations of the foundation of WIPNEWS taking a strong first step under the slogan of Koreas IP News to the World and Worlds IP News to Korea. Until now intellectual property news has been difficult for the general public to reach due to its technical terms and difficult content. The appearance of WIPNEWS which aims to deliver difficult content easily is good news. WIPNews will play a significant role in Koreas leap to a worldwide patent country in the field of intellectual property. I wish the good health and good luck of the people concerned including the Representative Gim Soo-woo. Thank you.

In addition on the 10th the member of the assembly Seo Byung-soo asked through a congratulatory message that WIP News will play a role to shift Korea as a global intellectual property (IP) hub in the field of global intellectual property.

Member of the Assembly Seo Byung-soo (Left) Commitee member Park (Center) and Representative Gim (right) are having a meeting at the National Assemblys office of Seo Byung-soo on the 9th.

After interviewing they are taking commemorative photos. From left Representative Gim Soo-woo Member of the Assembly Seo Byungsoo and Committee Member Park.

Website: : http://www.wip-news.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=3373