부정경쟁행위 일반조항에 관한 주요 법적 쟁점 연구

Abstract

The General Clause and Supplemental Clause of 'Unfair Competition Prevention And Trade Secret Protection'(Unfair Competition Prevention Act) amended by Act No. 11963, Jul. 30, 2013, was established to adequately deal with new type of various unfair competition. Before amendment, Unfair Competition Prevention Act had specified the type of unfair competition in 9 Subparagraph of Article 2, Paragraph 1(from Subparagraph Ga to Subparagraph Ja). Nevertheless, there was limit to regulate all kind of unfair competition. So it was needed to make the new general clause that is more flexible to deal with various kind of unfair competition. Therefore the Subparagraph Cha(Subparagraph ⒥) was newly added and it is included as one of the unfair competition acts that 'Any other acts of infringing on other persons' economic interests by using the outcomes, etc. achieved by them through substantial investment or efforts, for one's own business without permission, in a manner contrary to fair commercial practices or competition order' Application of Subparagraph Cha contributed to regulate the various type of unfair competition that was not defined in past Article 2, Paragraph 1. Traditionally, the case law categorized undefined type of unfair competition as matter of Tort, which Civil Law applies. But the establishment of Subparagraph Cha made Unfair Competition Prevention Act to be directly applied to manage the problem of undefined unfair competition activities. Despite the function of Subparagraph Cha, there is a remaining obstacle that comprehensive and abstract definition in Subparagraph Cha is not adequate to predict what kind of specific activities will be unfair competition of Subparagraph Cha. Thus more caution was needed to apply the Subparagraph Cha in legal practice. This issue raises necessity to explore the fundamental of General Clause of the Unfair Competition Prevention Act, the Scope and limitation. After this exploration, it is possible to discuss how Subparagraph Cha can be used properly, following the purpose of Unfair Competition Prevention Act. Therefore, this paper will research the related cases and cover the issues raised above.