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June 2025
June 2025Advertising and Selling Machines Patented in Korea on China’s Alibaba Constitutes Infringement of a Korean Patent
The Patent Court handed down a decision holding that an act of posting a product patented in Korea on an overseas ecommerce platform constitutes a patent infringement. The Patent Court recognized that even an act of posting an item for sale on an online platform with servers located abroad may be within the jurisdictional reach of the Korea Patent Act.
On May 22, 2025, the 21st Patent Division of the Patent Court found, in a suit (2023Na10693) brought by Lonati S.p.A (hereinafter, the “plaintiff”), an Italian corporation, against Zhejiang Yexiao Knitting Machinery (hereinafter, the “defendant”), a Chinese corporation, seeking an injunction against patent infringement, that there was an infringement of patent by the defendant, accepting the plaintiff’s claims.
The plaintiff had registered a patent for a machine for knitting hosiery, and the defendant has been advertising and selling similar machines it manufactured in China, posting them on Alibaba and on its own website.
The plaintiff henceforth argued that this machine falls within the scope of its own patented invention and that such an act of posting and selling on the internet falls under an “offer to transfer” under the Patent Act. The Patent Act defines an “offer to transfer” as one of the types of exploitation of patent.
The court clarified that, “even though the defendant is advertising and selling products on Alibaba, which is a Chinese ecommerce platform, and on its own website on servers located within China, the defendant’s action at issue falls under an act of inducement of sales directly targeting consumers within the Republic of Korea.”
The court further held that “this, as it constitutes an ‘offer to transfer,’ which is one of the acts of exploitation of patent under the Patent Act, is an infringement of the plaintiff’s patent,” granting the plaintiff’s demand for an injunction.
The court clarified that, in order to determine whether the defendant’s act actually infringes upon the Korean patent, the court examined several factors, including: i) whether the website provided product information in Korean, ii) whether ordering from and delivery to Korea were possible, iii) whether payment may be made in the Korean currency, iv) whether a channel for inquiry/consultation for Korean domestic consumers was made available, and v) whether there were any efforts to avoid patent infringement.
This ruling is regarded as a decision that clarifies that, even in case a product infringing a patent is posted on an overseas online platform or a website based in servers located overseas, if demands or consumers in the Republic of Korea are targeted, it may fall under an “offer to transfer,” which is defined to be patent infringement under the Patent Act.
An official of the Patent Court commented, “In preparing for this ruling, the court was able to thoroughly review foreign cases with similar points in dispute from the result of comparative legal research carried out by the International Intellectual Property Law Research Center” and that “the significance of this decision is in providing a basis for effectively responding to infringement of IP rights in the online transaction environment, reflecting the reality where commercial transactions, especially through globally accessible online platforms, have become commonplace.”
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