변리사법 개정을 위한 일본 변리사법 분석연구

Abstract

The legislative definition of patent attorney in South Korea reflects the professionalism offered by the patent attorney, therefore the general job description includes illustrative examples of tasks carried out by specialists who protect the rights in invention, design and trademark. Overall, the scope of the patent attorney's work is defined by a general descriptive language which leaves ambiguity in interpreting the boundary and the limitations in the tasks that a patent attorney may handle in the Korean legal system. For example, a simple sentence in the legislative bill led to a legal conflict with other professions such as lawyers which brought a litigation all the way up to the Constitutional Court of Korea in expectations of defining a clear cut boundary. Furthermore, in today's high-tech market, more new jobs that perform similar or same work as patent attorneys are being added in the society. For example, brand management specialist, patent transaction manager, or patent information analyst share similar functions that were traditionally performed by patent attorneys. In addition, with the evolution of technology and with the emergence of a completely new market, patent attorneys are being demanded with new job functions that are different from its traditional roles. A lot of Korea's legislation relating to patent attorneys are unfortunately unable to accommodate such change in the market, therefore creating even more ambiguity in the boundary of patent attorneys. In comparison, after a series of amendment in the language of its legislative bill, Japanese law setup a clear cut definition in the functions that is to be carried out by patent attorneys in Japan. In addition, Japanese law introduced new meanings of educational requirements for patent attorneys in response to the evolution of technology and change of market. This paper will introduce the efforts put in by the Japanese government for reforming the Japanese patent system such as the continuing patent education system, government efforts to redefine the patent law system in accordance with the current court system, etc. The overall study of the general Japanese patent attorney system beginning with the Japanese Patent Attorney Act was conducted in hopes of setting and bringing a guideline to be used in the reformation of the Korean patent attorney system.