기재불비에 대한 심판 및 소송의 문제점

Review on Description Rejection at Appeal before Patent Appeal Board and Patent Court ―In the Patent Court Case No. 2014HUR8052

The appeals at the Korean Patent Appeal Board (KPAB) and the Korean Patent Court (KPC) have a serious problem in discussing the legal issues. When a petitioner files an appeal at KPAB or KPC with at least two issues, the KPAB or KPC does not discuss the remaining issue(s) if one of the issues justifies the Examiner's rejection. For example, if the Examiner rejected the patent application under both the description requirement rejection and the obviousness rejection, the applicant will make arguments against both issues at the appeal. Then as a result of discussion of the appeal, if either the description rejection or the obviousness rejection is justified, the KPAB does not discuss the other issue. The KPC does in the same manner. They reason that the application should be rejected if the application has any one ground not to be allowed for patent. However, it should be kept in mind that their reason can be applied to the examination stage by Examiner, but cannot be applied to the appeal at KPAB or KPC.