• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.645-652
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• 2021

This paper analyzed the so-called 'Honey Butter Almond case', which became a hot topic by showing that the packaging design of a product can be distinguished as a recognizable trademark, not just a pattern. In the judgment, the issue was whether the discrimination power of the registered trademark and the similarity to the previously used trademark. First of all, with respect to the discrimination power of the registered trademark, the court said that the package front figure functions as an identification mark of the source, as long as the specificity of the expression method and overall composition are distinct from the commonly used. And the court said that it is difficult to say that the dominant impression is similar to the previously used trademark (the snack 'Honey Butter Chip') in terms of its name and idea. This case is acknowledging the function of the packaging design as a product label, and also acknowledging it can acquire identification as a distinctive trademark through the uniqueness of its composition and expression method.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.15
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• pp.169-209
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• 2001

As a domain name can be registered simply by filing an application for registration, disputes over the domain name between the holder of domain name and the holder of trademark increased. Since the holder of trademark who was late for registering domain name is willing to pay for the return of domain name, cybersquatters increased. Cybersqatters are not genuine users of the Internet. This article is to compare the construction of law by American Courts and by Korean Courts and to assert the creation of the law similar to the law of US as to anti-cybersqatting. American Courts applied the Trademark Act and the Anti-Dilution Act to resolve the disputes over domain name. To apply the Trademark Act, the Court required the plaintiffs to prove that the goods or the services expressed by the domain name should be identical or similar to the goods or the services represented by the trademark. However, there were many cases where the holder of domain name used it for the goods or the services irrelevant to those of the holder of trademark. Also, the Anti-Dilution Act could not successfully protect the holder of trademark from cybersquatters because it required that the trademark should be famous or distinctive. As a result, the US promulgated a new law which is designed to prohibit cybersquatters from being free of sanction by the existing laws. Korea Courts applied the Trademark Act and the Unfair Competition Prohibition Act to the cases disputing domain name. Likewise in the US, Korean Courts must cope with the issue of identity of the goods or the services, and the famousness or distinctiveness of trademark. The Courts hesitate to give a winning judgement to the holder of trademark simply because the domain name of alleged violator confused the trademark. Some scholars advocate the broadening of construction of the Unfair Competition Prohibition Act to illegalize cybersquatting but it is beyond the meaning of the law. Accordingly, it is a time to make a law similar to the Anti-Cybersquatting Act of the US. The law must be a fair and reasonable compromise to resolve the collision between system of registration of domain name and the system of registration of trademark. Some commentators advocate that the registration of domain name should be examined just as the one of trademark and to facilitate it, the Patent and Trademark Office should have jurisdiction of registration of domain name. But it abandons the distinction of domain name and trademark and results in obstructing e-commerce. By adopting the Anti-Cybersqatting Act, we can prohibit it. In other cases, we get a reasonable adjustment between the holder of domain name and the holder of trademark through the Trademark Act and the Unfair Competition Prohibition Act.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.197-224
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• 2005

Recently, the notion of National Innovation System (NIS) has attracted considerable attention as a key driver of the economic success. Amongst others, the Northeast Asian countries deserve highlight as central cases of NIS. This research attempts to examine inter-industrial knowledge flows and structure among Northeast Asian countries. To this end, Korea, Japan and Taiwan are selected and the patent citation data, a proxy of disembodied knowledge flows, from United Stated Patents and Trademark Office (USPTO) are employed for cluster analysis and network analysis. Some meaningful findings are presented and distinctive characteristics of respective countries are contrasted.

• Journal of the Korean Society for information Management
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.7-20
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• 2010

This study aims to provide a method of extracting the most recent information on US patent documents. An HTML paring technique that can directly connect to the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Web page is adopted. After obtaining a list of 50 documents through a keyword searching method, this study suggested an algorithm, using HTML parsing techniques, which can extract a patent number, an applicant, and the US patent class information. The study also revealed an algorithm by which we can extract both patents and subsequent patents using their closely connected relationship, that is a very distinctive characteristic of US patent documents. Although the proposed method has several limitations, it can supplement existing databases effectively in terms of timeliness and comprehensiveness.