Front view of the Daejeon Seo-gu Patent Court building (Image provided by the Patent Court)
SEOUL, May 29 (Korea Bizwire) — In a landmark ruling, South Korea’s Patent Court has confirmed that foreign companies selling patent-infringing products through overseas e-commerce platforms can be held accountable under Korean patent law — if their sales target domestic consumers.
The ruling, handed down by the 21st Civil Division of the Patent Court, sided with Italian company A in its lawsuit against Chinese firm B, which allegedly violated A’s Korean patent for a sock-knitting machine.
B had manufactured the machines in China and marketed them through Alibaba and its own website. A sued in a South Korean court, claiming the sales constituted an infringement of its patent registered in South Korea.
Although both companies are foreign entities, the court ruled that it had jurisdiction because the case concerns a patent protected under Korean law. It also affirmed that Korean patent law, not foreign law, was applicable to the case.
A central legal question was whether B’s online listings amounted to an “offer to assign” — a form of patent infringement under South Korean law. The court found that B’s websites included Korean-language descriptions, accepted payment in Korean won, and enabled delivery to South Korea, indicating a clear intent to target Korean consumers.
Despite operating through Chinese platforms and hosting its site on Chinese servers, B’s actions were deemed a direct solicitation of South Korean customers, thereby constituting a violation of domestic patent law.
Legal experts say this is the first case to explicitly establish that South Korean patent law can apply to foreign websites and platforms if they engage in infringing sales activities aimed at South Korean users.
A court official said the decision provides a crucial legal precedent for addressing cross-border intellectual property violations in an era of globally accessible e-commerce.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
