韓國專利法院

The Patent Court in Korea

韓國專利法院是在亞洲成立較早的智慧財產權專門法院，其目的是確保發明專利法、實用新型專利法、外觀設計專利法和商標法解釋的統一性和可預測性，忠實地執行其任務。而技術審理官制度的成功運作，也確保了法官對技術案件審理的專業性。專利法院過去雖具有高級法院的地位，但只管轄專利和商標的授權確權上訴案件，不管轄專利權和商標權侵權案件；因此，其無法一次性解決專利糾紛，並導致了沒有效率的訴訟、判決矛盾或相互抵觸等許多問題。現在韓國政府不斷地促進專利法院的改革，其中有個重要的進步，就是專利法院從2016年1月1日正式開始管轄專利權和商標權的侵權二審案件，此舉值得中國關注。

The Patent Court in Korea is one of the earliest established IP specialized courts in Asia and aims to secure the unity of IP law interpretation and the predictability thereof. The Patent Court has successful experience in utilizing the technical expert system which supports judges by assisting them in having a better understanding of technical issues. The Patent Court currently exercises exclusive jurisdiction for validity issues only. Infringement issues are referred to ordinary courts. This bifurcated court system has created the possibility of conflicting decisions as well as difficulty in seeking one-stop solutions for IP disputes and lawsuit efficiency. Currently, the Korean government is endeavoring to reform jurisdictions of the Patent Court, and from 1st January 2016, the Patent Court will exercise exclusive jurisdiction for second instances of both validity and infringement cases regarding patents, utility models, designs and trademarks. The history of reforming the Patent Court in Korea will provide a good reference for China's IP court.