지식재산권 침해와 부정경쟁의 관계에 관한 고찰

A party can infringe on another’s intellectual property and engage in unfair competition. In that situation, three legal issues can arise. First, whether the unauthorized use of the intellectual property of others can be deemed an unfair competitive practice. Second, whether a company who obeys intellectual property law can claim an injunction, damages and criminal sanctions to the other who violated intellectual property law on the basis of unfair competition without a permission of the intellectual property rights holder. Third, when the IP infringements are carried out in a foreign country and products manufactured with the infringements are imported and sold in the domestic market, it needs to be determined whether the application of domestic law is a violation of extraterritoriality. A breach of intellectual property law is not deemed unfair competition in Germany. However, it is considered unfair competition in the US. According to the US and German theories, if someone infringes on another's intellectual property to save management expenses or to sell goods at low prices and that affects the market directly, the infringements on intellectual property can be recognized as an act of unfair competition.