정정보정의 적법성 판단기준 - 441 - ❙Abstract❙ Assessing the Legality of a Corrective Amendment - IP High Court Decision No. 2023Heo14127 (July 25, 2024) - 112) Kim Kyungjin* The IP High Court’s Decision in case No. 2023Heo14127, rendered on July 25, 2024, held that a corrective amendment was held unlawful because it constituted a change of subject matter. While there have been few precedents regarding the legality of corrective amendment, the decision serve to re-examine the criteria for determining the change of subject matter. Under the current Korean practice, the permissible scope of a corrective amendment is relatively limited. In Korea, a patent holder can select only a single amendment proposal, and although the request for amendments includes multiple matters, partial acceptance is not permitted. Moreover, a corrective amendment often serves as the last opportunity to cure defects in the request for amendment. In addition, the restrictive approach may force the patent holder to raise separate correction trials during the appellate stage. By contrast, in a major countries, the patent holder are allowed to submit multiple amendment proposals or are given additional opportunities to amend claims in response to the trial panel’s opinion. Considering the above, Korea also needs to introduce a more flexible approach for the corrective amendment. According to Supreme Court precedents, the main purpose for prohibiting a change of subject matter in a petition is to prevent undue procedural delays and to protect the opposing party’s right to defense. From this perspective, this article proposes a new standard for determining the legality of a corrective amendment. A corrective amendment should not be regarded as an impermissible change of subject matter if the amended matter has already been substantively examined during the trial procedures, and admitting the amendment would neither significantly delay the procedures nor prejudice the opposing party’s procedural * Associate Professor, Sungkyunkwan University Law School.
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