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Article: Korean Supreme Court Reverses its 1985 Chevron Decision on Improvement Invention.(Case overview)
- Article from:
- Mondaq Business Briefing
- Article date:
- February 1, 2002
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Mondaq Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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In its unanimous decision rendered on August 12, 2001, the Korean Supreme Court reversed the infamous “Chevron” case decided in 1985. Specifically, in Nissan Kagaku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha v. LG Chemicals Co., Ltd. (Supreme Court Case No. 98 Hu 522), the Supreme Court held that a junior chemical process invention which utilizes all of the elements constituting a senior patented invention and adds a catalyst to obtain superior results still falls within the scope of the earlier patent, overturning the 1985 Chevron decision.
Improvement Invention
In Article 98 of the Korean Patent Act, it is provided that “the patentee or licensee of a ...