지적재산권침해범죄의 실태와 형법적 규제

Currents and Features of Intellectual Property Crimes in Korea

Under intellectual property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets, such as musical, literary, and artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs. Common types of intellectual property include copyrights, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights and trade secrets in some jurisdictions. Nowadays intellectual property has gaining more and more significance according to social change from industrial society to information society. In Korea legislatures for protection of intellectual property is varied including Copyright Law, Patent Law, Trade Secret Protection Law and etc. This essay will review currents of intellectual property related crimes and focus on the features of intellectual property laws on this field. For example, Copyright Law has enhanced the amount of legal punishment for copyright violation and widened the scope of acts under punishment. This trend has been driven from lawmakers' strong intent for protection of intellectual property which has been influenced from business leaders. Other law for intellectual property has taken the similar measures for the infringement acts. I think that this development in this field is biased for the owners of rights and neglect the interest of the public to use the intellectual property freely. Intellectual property should not only protect the interest of the owners but also the public's interest for the intellectual property. There is also criticism because strict intellectual property rights can inhibit the flow of innovations to poor nations. Developing countries have benefitted from the spread of developed country technologies, such as the internet, mobile phone, vaccines, and high-yielding grains.