품종보호권과 특허권의 이용·저촉관계에 관한 쟁점과 해결 방안

Abstract

Today, seed industry is very important in the perspective of security and economy. Multinational seed companies such as Monsanto have been making large investments and trying to receive intellectual property protection for the results of the investment. New plant varieties can be protected by the plant variety protection law and patent law at the same time. As a result, there occur issues concerning the relationship between plant variety right and patent. But, both plant variety protection law and patent law do not define the use and conflict of those rights clearly. Article 98 of the patent law regulates the use of patented invention and conflicts with another person’s intellectual property rights such as patent, utility model right, design right and trade mark. But it does not include plant variety right. At this point, the current law has some problems with the increasing importance of intellectual property rights regarding seed. This research suggests practical revision of article 98, article 105 and article 108 of patent act, taking the connection with plant variety right into consideration. It also presents legal improvements to regulate the use and conflict of variety right and patent, by introducing a couple of new provisions into plant variety protection act.