영국 산업재산권법의 특징과 시사점

The emergence of the Common Community Policy in the protection of intellectual properties (IP) has ignited competition between Community IP protection regime and Member States IP protection regimes, and among the Member State regimes themselves. Foreign companies outside of the EEA should aim to get the fastest and broadest IP rights at the lowest cost. When UK has a prominent position in a relevant product or service market and when a company has a commercial presence in the UK, it is worthwhile to apply for a UK patent or trademark registration. In fact, so have done many North American and Asian companies. The followings are features of UK industrial property rights. There is no petit patent. A specification of the patent claim may be written a bit liberally compared to continental countries. A peripheral boundary description method is applied. Computer program and business methods are rarely patented by themselves as they lack technological elements. An employee who made an invention can get compensation for the benefits which employer gets from the invention or the related patents. Getting an UK industrial property rights has implications beyond the UK territorial boundary into the European and the Common Wealth markets. Cooperation and partnership between the players in the UK to break into these broader markets is as important as competition for the UK market. Cross licensing and patent pooling are to be considered for this purpose.