• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.313-333
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• 2017

As science and technology advanced, specialized and massive, development through mutual cooperation or research based on patent licensing such as material transfer contract, technology transfer contract etc are actively taking place to minimize or separate the cost and risk of R&D. In R&D, such mutual work can enjoy the merit of division of labor by effectively allocating resources and manpower to accomplish its goal. Inevitably, however, there are also many possibilities of disputes regarding the ownership and use of intellectual property rights resulting from such mutual/post-studies, or inventions upgraded by using prior patents. The case reviewed by this paper is noticeable regarding the recent trend of upgraded inventions. In the case, a pharmaceutical company conducted tests/assessments on the complete technology of patent owned by a university on the premise of transferring the technology, and then terminated the technology transfer contract due to reasons of toxicity. The university then filed a damage claim suit against the company for infringing the contract. This is a dispute case betw een a university which developed a potential ingredient for new medicine and a pharmaceutical company which agreed to transfer and receive the technological later on. Regarding the upgraded inventions of source patents, this case has many implications on the protection of prior patents, research contract, and research security to protect the accomplishment of research. This paper reviews the subject ruling and the protection of upgraded patents and source technologies. As critical notes, the paper also summarizes the major issues of case ruling to observe the standard of ruling patent infringement related to the extortion of upgraded patents. Then, through the ruling of the case above, the paper suggests implications and future strategies.