Regulations Needed

 

It has been found that most of the international intellectual property disputes Korean companies are involved with have been caused by non-practicing entities (NPEs). 

According to the Korea Intellectual Property Protection Association, a total of 300 such disputes arose last year, with the lawsuits against NPEs accounting for 81 percent of them. The number itself decreased about 12 percent from a year ago, though. 

A total of 114 of the suits against NPEs were in the information and communications sector, followed by electrical and electronics (84) and equipment manufacturing (30). By field of technology, computers and mobile represented 31 percent and 21 percent of the cases, respectively. They were followed by AV (13 percent), basic communications processes (11 percent), semiconductors (5 percent), and control (5 percent). 

In the meantime, the total number of industrial disputes decreased 19 percent from a year earlier to 7,585 last year, and the number of those involved with NPEs dropped 35 percent to 2,856. The ratio of the latter to the former fell from 47 percent to 38 percent between 2013 and 2014, too. 

Under the circumstances, the Korean government is trying to seek effective regulations on NPEs. In this context, the Fair Trade Commission amended the Review Guidelines on Undue Exercise of Intellectual Property Rights in December last year. The revision provides the definition of NPEs and categorized the abuse by NPEs into excessive license fees, denial of the application of the FRAND principle, privateering, and others.

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