특허법상 명세서, 발명설명서(Description), 청구항 및 도면의 개념 재정립 방안

A Suggestion on Re-structuring Concepts of Specification, Description, Claim and Drawing in the Korea Patent Act

This paper firstly indicates that some terminologies in the Korea Patent Act, such as specification, scope of claims are not consistently or logically used and that those are not correspondent with those used in international treaties or foreign patent laws, and then secondly suggests that a patent request shall be attached by specification and abstract and the specification shall consist of description, claim(s) and drawing(s). Furthermore, this paper suggests that not only description but also drawing(s) and claim(s) may enable a PHOSITA to carry out the claimed invention and that the claimed invention may be supported by not only description but also drawing(s) and claim(s). To substantialize these suggestions, it is necessary to drastically amend the Korea Patent Act. The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) plans to introduce the Patent Law Treaty into the Korea Patent Act within 2012. Taking advantage of the introduction and necessary amendment of law, KIPO had better to re-structure concepts of important terminologies (specification, description, claim and drawing) as suggested by this paper and amend relevant provisions of the Korea Patent Act.