[특별기고] 대한민국 특허제도의 문제점 (I)

A Review Regarding Problems on Korean Patent System (I)

In Korea and Japan, patent fees and annuities depend on the number of claims, which is unique unlike the rest of the world. The current patent fee system in Korea and Japan may not be justified to achieve the goal of the patent system. The patent fee system may block the applicants to draft claims in proper numbers because they shall consider the number of claims so as to reduce patent fees and annuities. And to make it worse, both countries adopt a cancellation system of claims in which the patentees may cancel some of the patented claims voluntarily during the patent period when they pay the annuities. Such cancellation system will face a predicament which the patentees shall not allege any rights against a third party's utilization of the cancelled inventions because the cancelled inventions can be used by a third party without constituting a patent infringement action under the File Wrapper Estoppel. The current patent fee system of Korea and Japan shall be dropped to maximize the goal of the patent system so that the inventions might be protected properly and perfectly under the multiple claim system. The current patent fee system shall be prepared per patent rather than per claim. If so, the cancellation systems of claims shall be automatically abolished.