ABSTRACT
The main legacy of the intellectual property rights (IPR) initiative during the Koizumi Administration that has continued to stop replication and intellectual property infringement is the Japan-South Korean IP Highway. The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) has been conducting trend analyses to ensure that there is no duplication of patents or legal issues that will impede a patent application, which continues to make the whole process more efficient. This has been carried out by gleaning patent information from government research and development (R&D) projects. KIPO has worked with the Korean Development Bank (KDB) to secure loans for SME companies using their intellectual property as collateral or leverage. Exactly how far South Korea has come from the pre-Park Chung-hee days of poverty, underdevelopment and a lacklustre economy can be seen in how the ROK through increasing R&D investment, innovation and intellectual property has led to the world's largest lawsuit.
