한․중 FTA 체결을 위한 양국의 특허 및 상표법의 비교 - 주요쟁점을 중심으로 -

Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property was signed in March 20th of 1883 where 174 countries have ratified the treaty as of January 17th 2012 including South Korea and China. This convention provides several measures for the protection of industrial property such as; fair treatment for both domestic and foreign applicants in patent application, recognizing the principles of priority rights, and principles patent independence, etc. These measures have been contributing in the promotion and harmony of the intellectual property system of each country. Since the 1990s, the characteristics of international efforts for the protection of the industrial property would be employing the ‘Multilateral negotiating approach’ such as the WTO/TRIPs. Efforts for harmonizing and unifying the intellectual property system of countries have been an important agenda in various international treaties such as the F.T.A. These international agreements define the principles of §3①, National Treatment, §4, MFN: Most Favored Nation Treatment, and minimum protection, exhaustion of rights. F.T.A. especially is an agreement that is setup between two countries. Sometimes this enables tighter measures for the protection of industrial property. Therefore such regional negotiating approach has been gaining attention recently as means of improving each country’s patent system. China is a country with a second largest economy in the world as well as one of the largest trade partners of South Korea. It is no doubt that setting up an F.T.A. with China will bring tremendous opportunities for South Korea. However, this also means that both South Korea and China will have to work together because there are differences between each country’s intellectual property systems. Such difference could negatively affect South Korean businesses’ expansion into China. The F.T.A. between South Korea and China should be an opportunity to overcome the differences in the system between the two countries that could bring mutual benefits for both. This paper will study the possible mutual cooperation between South Korea and China for the improvement of the intellectual property system.