The Korea Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) said Monday it has launched the "Unfair Competition Prevention Act Improvement Committee" and held its first meeting the same day.
The committee includes 10 private-sector intellectual property (IP) experts from academia, the legal profession and corporate leadership. About 20 people, including KIPO Deputy Commissioner Jung Yeon-woo and committee members, attended the inaugural ceremony. The first meeting was set to cover recent developments and issues related to the Unfair Competition Prevention Act, as well as a review of major foreign laws on unfair competition prevention and trade secret protection.
KIPO cited a surge in IP disputes that are difficult to resolve under the current unfair competition framework amid the digital transformation and the spread of artificial intelligence (AI) as the reason for the overhaul. Concerns have persistently been raised about the limits of responding to new types of IP infringement, including the unauthorized creation of celebrities' appearances and voices (digital personas) using AI, unauthorized distillation of AI models, and unauthorized extraction of training data.
The current Unfair Competition Prevention Act combines "regulation of unfair competition practices" and "trade secret protection" — which differ in purpose and nature — within a single statute. Voices have also emerged calling for a review to improve public understanding of the law and enhance predictability.
Going forward, the committee plans to closely diagnose the blind spots of the current system and design a blueprint for a new IP protection framework that responds to the demands of the times. Key discussion areas include: reviewing the structural adequacy of the current Unfair Competition Prevention Act framework; examining new areas requiring protection in the digital, platform and AI environments; and reviewing measures to enhance predictability and enforcement effectiveness in industrial settings.
"In the AI era, national competitiveness depends on how properly we protect and fairly utilize intangible achievements such as ideas, data, brands and trade secrets," KIPO Deputy Commissioner Jung Yeon-woo said.
