Means of Remedies for South Korea for Infringement of SEP(Standard Essential Patents)

Sungyop WOO High Court Judge Patent Court of Korea

The 2020 International IP Court Conference an international exchange event of the professionals in the IP field consisting of five sessions which are status of international trials high technology and patent eligibility major issues in design litigation cross-border patent infringement and mock trials has been ended successfully on November 12.

In session 5 which is fifth program of conference sharing of opinion was accomplished about ‘Discussions on Standard Essential Patents(SEP) and FRAND Commitment by Germany U.S South Korea Japan England and China’s guest speakers.

The speaker Sungyop WOO High Court Judge of Patent Court of Korea has been a high court judge since 2018. After his first appointment at Incheon District Court in 2009 he worked at several courts including Seoul Central District Court and Daegu High Court. Recently he worked as a Judge of the Research Division of Supreme Court of Korea from 2016 to 2018 mainly focusing on the cases pertaining to Civil Law Criminal Law and Intellectual Property Law.

In addition on November 11 2020 we were able to meet him at the 2020 International IP Court Conference.

Q : Where SEP infringement is recognized is it possible to issue a conditional injunction order which can be enforced until or unless certain conditions are met (e.g. the defendant enters into a license agreement under the terms and conditions set by the court)? (See Unwired Planet vs. Huawei by UK Court We understand that the UK Court ruled that a FRAND license necessarily had to be global went on to define its terms and issued an injunction against Huawei in the UK that would be lifted only if Huawei agreed to a global license under the terms set by the court.

A : As examined earlier “patent infringement” is the only element to get an injunction under the Korean Patent Act and the Act does not prescribe as to “the principles of equity” or “on such terms as the court deems reasonable” as Section 283 of the U.S. Patent Act (35 U.S.C. § 283) does. Therefore there seems to be no case in Korea yet where an injunction was issued by imposing terms the court deems reasonable at its discretion and under the Korean Patent Act such a conditional injunction would be unlikely.

This conference held on November 12 2020 was held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Seoul under the theme of Court IP and Globalization with the method using parallel online and offline to prevent the spread out of Covid 19.

Focusing on IP5 which are United States China Japan and Germany about 300 IP related professionals from 8 nations around the world participated online and offline to share and progress IP issues with various cases.

The 2020 International IP Court Conference was ended in great success raising the status of the IP international trial in Korea covering five sessions and mock trials.

Sungyop WOO High Court Judge of Patent Court of Korea who is giving a presentation at the 2020 International IP Court Conference

2020 International IP court conference commemorative photo

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