Following the recent landmark decision by the Supreme Court of Korea on a patent litigation case, the Korea In-house Counsel Association (KICA) hosted a webinar with Yulchon law firm on new trends in patent law and cases.
In April this year, the Supreme Court ruled to uphold the validity of the substance patent of a cardiovascular drug, Apixaban, jointly sold by Pfizer Korea and BMS Korea, until September 2024. This decision ended litigation against the local drugmaker that had dragged on for more than five years.
The webinar was held on 24 May and split into three topics, followed by a Q&A after each session. Ku Min-seung, a partner at Yulchon, presented a topic on the recent trends in Supreme Court rulings and their impacts on the industry, while senior patent attorney Yoon Kyung-ae discussed recent judgments on patent term extensions and their impact.
Partner Jeong Sang-tae shared his insights on landmark judgments of infringement litigation cases between 2016 and 2020. “Since 2016, there has been a tendency to improve various systems on evidence of infringement and calculation of damages, along with the jurisdiction of patent infringement litigation,” said Jeong, who is also the secretary-general of the Korea Intellectual Property Lawyers Association.
The event was held by the academic committee of the KICA, which comprises several sub-committees overseeing academic affairs that make recommendations about academic programmes and strategic priorities.
Chae Jooyup, a co-chair of KICA, said that the association plans to have more collaborations with professionals to address various topics at the sub-committee level including IT, media, finance and healthcare.
“We will inquire about the interest of our members during the in-house lawyer capacity-building event held on 1 September,” he told Asia Business Law Journal.
