Renovation of the National Patent Attorney Examination

(The Patent & Trademark Newspaper on December 5,2022)

                                                            Myung Shin Kim

                                                                                                           Advisor, The Korean Patent Attorneys Association

The 59th National Patent Attorney Examination result in 2022 has been announced.

The number of successful candidates is 210. When analyzing the specialties of the successful candidates in 2022, it shows that 74 people majored in chemistry, pharmacy or biotechnology, 56 people majored in mechanics or metallurgy, 40 people majored in electricity or electronics, 66 people majored in civil engineering, architecture, or industrial engineering, and 29 people majored in other fields.

In comparison, when analyzing the specialties of the 235 people who passed in 2012, it shows that 105 people majored in electricity or electronics, 66 people majored in chemistry, pharmacy, or biotechnology, 41 people majored in mechanics or metallurgy, and 23 people majored in other fields. From these statistics, we can see that the number of successful candidates who majored in electricity or electronics has greatly diminished from 2012 to 2022.

Obviously, to deal with strong international competition, the Korean government should select outstanding talents who majored in various technical fields to train as experts in industrial property. However, even though we now need more experts majoring in electricity and electronics rather than chemistry, pharmacy, and biotechnology, we see a result contrary to the social need. Even if the social need prefers the electricity and electronics fields, if we change the examination system every time to follow such need, it will bring about a serious legal problem. Under these circumstances, we must renovate the national patent attorney examination system that currently does not consider the social need.

As I have heard, for people who majored in the chemistry field, it is very difficult to get a job. On the other hand, for people who majored in the electricity field is easy to get a job. Thus, among the candidates for the patent attorney examination, the number of people who majored in the electricity field is small compared with that of those who majored in the chemistry field. 

Further, the score of the elective subject does not apply to the total scores, whereas this score applies only to the pass-fail test. Whether or not a candidate passes or fails the examination depends on the scores of the required subjects. The government must set up a master plan for providing outstanding talents reasonably in each technical field following the social need. If we listen to the examinee's opinion, most have favored copyright law or design protection law as an elective subject for examination.

Now, I propose that we change copyright law from one of elective subjects to a required subject. The examinee would select only one from the elective subjects, and the total scores of the required subjects and elective subject would apply to the scores of the successful candidate. I would do this because, currently, there is no certified expert on copyright matters. If these changes are made, a patent attorney would become a certified expert on industrial property and copyright.

In the digital industrial era we now live in, there is no practical benefit to distinguishing between the protection of industrial property and copyright. Many countries have set up Intellectual Property Offices that handle Industrial Property and Copyright together to bring a synergy effect to the intellectual property policy. Based on this background, I propose renovating the national patent attorney examination.