Senior Attorney Seung-Hun Lee and Attorney Sung-Ha Park of Dentons Lee, representing the Defendants, recently won a patent infringement case related to the construction of a dam in Djenne Mali, Africa. The infringement suit was filed in Seoul Central District Court.
The dam construction at Djenne Mali was a business project led by the Export-Import Bank of Korea as the hosting financial institution, with the Mali government receiving support via the Economic Development Cooperation Fund of the Korean government. The builder on the project was a joint venture between Samsung C&T and Haejeon Industrial Co., Ltd.
The Plaintiff, a dam engineering company built based on Korean law, claiming that the technology used in the dam gate of the construction project was identical to that of the Plaintiff’s patented technology, filed a patent infringement lawsuit.
Dentons Lee represented the Defendants and argued that the Plaintiffs did not establish that an actionable patent infringement had occurred in Korea. The Plaintiff registered its patent in Korea. The Defendants only manufactured portions of the dam gate in Korea, but exported the parts to Mali, and the dam construction occurred in Mali. Therefore, the claimed patent infringement (which the Defendants denied) could not be proved in Korea where the patent was registered because all of the elements needed to establish a patent infringement did not occur in Korea.
The Court agreed, deciding that as only the component parts were manufactured in Korea and then exported to Mali and incorporated into an allegedly infringing dam gate in Mali, all elements of infringement did not occur in Korea and this would not constitute a patent infringement in Korea.
This Decision is significant because the Court has now provided guidance on territorial principles regarding patents and has ruled that to prove patent infringement in Korea, all elements of infringement must occur in Korea. This ruling will provide important guidance on claims in Korea stemming from alleged overseas patent infringement.
