Launching of the Committee for IP Hub Court

The 1st Meeting was held on June 4, 2015.

¢Â Background

- The Patent Court of Korea is a specialized court for intellectual property, the first of its kind to be established in Asia in 1998.

- Building on the continuous efforts made to date to enhance expertise and international prestige of the Patent Court, the Supreme Court laid out a master plan in March 2015 after conducting internal researches and discussions to establish IP Hub Court as ‘a model for future justice which can be created by combining Korea’s advanced judicial infrastructure with human resources’.

- As the IP Hub Court, the IP specialized court preferred by parties to resolve disputes, can play a role as a test bed for swift, accurate, low-cost decisions for global IP disputes from the International IP Court in the Patent Court, establishment of the IP Hub Court can be realized through expertise and enhanced international prestige of the Patent Court.

- IP Hub Court, with combination of IP with justice service, can present a new growth model to Korea faced with limits to growth and will later become social capital contributing to society.

- Amid fierce competition among countries jockeying to become IP hub country, it is necessary to collect opinions from all walks of life and seek specific development measures in order for the Patent Court of Korea to become IP Hub Court.

- Therefore, the Supreme Court decided to launch Committee for IP Hub Court under the National Court Administration to discuss measures to come up with legal, institutional, physical, human resources and international framework to materialize IP Hub Court.

¢Â Composition of Committee for IP Hub Court

- As an organization for open discussion participated by not only the judiciary but also the legislature, the executive, academia, industry and experts in related organization, the Committee will become a venue for systematically gathering various public opinions and stance of all walks of life.

- Members of Committee for IP Hub Court: The Committee composed of a total of 14 persons includes Chief Judge of Patent Court, two lawmakers who are Chairpersons of Steering Committee for Global IP Hub Nation of the National Assembly(above three are Co-Chairs of the Committee for IP Hub Court), representatives of Presidential Council on Intellectual Property, Ministry of Justice, Korean Intellectual Property Office(KIPO) as personnel from the executive, representatives of law professors and science technology communities, industrial communities, lawyer’s organization, and patent lawyer’s organization, respectively.

- Special Commissioners: Not only judges with expertise on IP but experts from other institutions will participate as well.

¢Â Items of agenda for Committee for IP Hub Court

- Internationalization of IP Court

- Enhancing IP proceedings: Patent proceedings that meet the global standards, proper protection for IP owners

- Strengthening expertise of IP Court and presenting future strategy

¢Â Operation plans for Committee for IP Hub Court

- The 1st meeting will be held in the Supreme Court on June 4, 2015.

- Various measures including whether to establish ‘International IP Court’ in the Patent Court and internationalizing IP Court will be discussed in July 2015.

 - By October 2015, monthly meetings are scheduled to be held.