YOON&YANG

Yoon & Yang has been successfully representing HITE JINRO, the largest domestic alcoholic beverage manufacturer in Korea in a patent disputes, which has been initiated with an individual inventor’s claim against HITE JINRO that helical pattern in the bottleneck of “Terra” beer, a one of the most famous beer brands has infringed a patent. Yoon & Yang has been representing the defendant, HITE JINRO in this case from the early phase and counter-filed a patent scope confirmation proceeding and a patent invalidation proceeding with the Intellectual Property Trial and Appeal Board (IPTAB) after reviewing patent infringement and patent invalidation. IPTAB has decided that helical pattern in the “Terra” beer bottle does not comprise of elements relating to rotational discharging effect so that it is not included in the scope of the subject patent at the patent scope confirmation proceeding. At the patent invalidation proceeding, IPTAB further decided that the subject patent should invalidate because its inventive step is not acknowledged by prior arts. With regard to this, the opponent party filed an appeal. However, by explaining main characteristics of the subject patent and difference between the subject patent and “Terra” beer bottle logically, and verifying similarity between the subject patent and prior arts, Yoon & Yang has drawn that the IPTAB's decision is acceptable both at the Patent Court and the Supreme Court of Korea.

In this case, Yoon & Yang has successfully defended the client in a patent dispute at an early stage on prompt and appropriate response against so-called NPE (Non-Practicing Entity) who pays attention to profit by taking advantage of having patent rights even not actually use them.