과학기술 관련 분야에서의 한ㆍ미 FTA의 이해와 분석

The Free Trade Agreement between the Republic of Korea and the United States of America was signed on June 30, 2007 after long and intense negotiations. Science and technology-related field has been one of the disputed areas during the negotiation for the FTA. This paper addresses the FTA with emphasis on the field of law of science and technology including intellectual property law. The agreement is reviewed on the two main aspects: intellectual property law and law of science and technology except IP. One of the important agreements in the intellectual property law field is related to pharmaceutical products. A linkage system between the marketing approval process and patent process for the pharmaceutical products is agreed to be implemented in the patent law. The other important topics to be discussed are as follows: the standard for the extension of the patent term is modified, grace period for inventions is extended to 12 months, copyright term is elongated to 70 years, and copyright is extended to the copying through temporary storage. Some of the important aspects in the field of science and technology are also reviewed, and a few important but failed to be agreed topics are finally discussed.