Recent Developments

On May 15, 2025, Chosun Ilbo published an article highlighting the achievements of Lee & Ko’s Intellectual Property Practice Group in the long-running patent dispute between Coway and ChungHo. According to the article, the Supreme Court’s Third Division upheld the appellate court’s decision, thereby conclusively rejecting ChungHo’s claims of patent infringement and damages against Coway. This final ruling affirms Coway’s victory, with Lee & Ko representing Coway in the appellate court and the Supreme Court. The article explained that the court of first instance initially found Coway liable for patent infringement, ordering the company to pay KRW 10 billion to ChungHo and to destroy the infringing products. However, the appellate court subsequently overturned this decision, ruling in favor of Coway. The appellate court determined that the essence of ChungHo’s patent was the process of making ice directly from pre-cooled water, while Coway’s product made ice using water at various temperatures. The court also noted significant differences between key components of the two products. The article continued, “The Supreme Court also found that the appellate court’s decision was correct,” adding, “Coway represented by Lee & Ko ultimately prevailed in the 11-year patent infringement lawsuit against ChungHo over ice water purifiers.”

On April 28, 2025, the Maeil Business Newspaper spotlighted Lee & Ko’s Global Disputes Group. The article reported that “Lee & Ko has become the first Korean law firm to establish a comprehensive Global Disputes Group, designed to offer expert-driven and coordinated solutions to complex international disputes.”

The article noted that “the Global Disputes Group, led by Dr. Eun Young Park, is comprised of over ten specialized teams, including the International Arbitration Team, International Litigation Team, International IP Disputes Team, International Trade Team, and Economic Sanctions Team. The Group is structured to provide integrated and coordinated solutions as well as tailored solutions depending on the nature of the disputes and the issue at stake.”

The article further highlighted that “the launch of Lee & Ko’s Global Disputes Group marks an unprecedented initiative by Korean law firms. It is seen as an industry-leading and strategic step, positioning the firm to proactively respond to increasingly complex and sophisticated international disputes.”

On March 30, 2025, Seoul Economic Daily reported on the victory of Lee & Ko’s Intellectual Property Practice Group. The article stated, “Lee & Ko’s Intellectual Property Practice Group successfully represented Wonik PNE, a manufacturer of secondary battery activation devices, in a lawsuit over patent ownership against a competing company.” It further highlighted that “after a prolonged dispute lasting three years and four months, Lee & Ko’s Intellectual Property Practice Group secured decisive victories for Wonik PNE before both the court of first instance and the court of second instance.” During the litigation process, Lee & Ko attorneys proved that the patent was the result of an employee invention developed by Wonik PNE employees during their work duties, thereby preventing the leakage of core technologies.

Lee & Ko has been named Korea's leading law firm in both Patent Contentious and Trademark Prosecution categories at the 2024 Asia IP Awards, as reported by EDaily on November 22, 2024. According to the article, this marks the first time in Korea that a law firm has earned the distinction of Firm of the Year in two categories at the Asia IP Awards. The article further mentioned that "Lee & Ko's Intellectual Property Group continues to deliver exceptional results in both domestic and international patent litigation and strategic counselling, leveraging their profound technical understanding and robust legal reasoning.”

On May 27, 2024, the E-Daily reported that Lee & Ko attorneys Keum Nang Park and Sung Hui Yoon were selected as ‘Top 100 Women in Litigation’ and ‘Top 40 Under 40 2024’ respectively for the Asia-Pacific region as published by Benchmark Litigation. As the Co-head of Lee & Ko’s Healthcare Group, Ms. Keum Nang Park has gained experience in cases related to intellectual property rights such as pharmaceutical and biotechnology patents. As one of the key attorneys in Lee & Ko’s Construction & Real Estate Group and Environmental Safety Group, Mr. Sung Hui Yoon advises and represents client in the practice areas of construction, real estate, occupational safety and serious accidents, public-private partnership project, administrative litigation etc. 

On May 24, 2024, Jose Ilbo reported Lee & Ko’s winning of awards. Lee & Ko was awarded in four categories at the “Benchmark Litigation Asia-Pacific Awards 2024”. First, Lee & Ko was honored with the ‘Commercial and Transactions Firm of the Year’ and ‘Labour and Employment Firm of the Year’ awards. In addition, the firm also won two “Impact Cases of the Year” awards in recognition of its performance in the largest dispute in South Korean history of patent litigation against a global healthcare company’s global blockbuster heart failure treatment agent and an insurance claim for an accident occurred during the construction of a double-track railway public-private partnership project in Busan. 

On February 13, 2024, Aju News shared in its news article Lee & Ko’s attorney Mr. Un Ho Kim’s remark on a recent update regarding the Act on the Prevention of Unfair Competition and Protection of Trade Secrets.  Mr. Kim explained that, with proposed amendments to the Act now passed at the Cabinet meeting, “businesses should be mindful that damages awarded in intellectual property cases could increase significantly and so is the possibility of criminal punishment, and should establish meticulous measures to prevent infringement of intellectual property rights.”  He further commented, “in the event of an intellectual property dispute, the right holder needs to actively utilize the relevant provisions in the Act.”

Forbes reported an interview with Jaewoo Kwak, a partner of Lee & Ko on January 23, 2024. In the interview, Mr. Kwak, a lawyer specializing in intellectual property rights, stated that although there are currently few cases related to AI worldwide, there will be more in the future. He discussed the intellectual property market for various industries including electronics, materials, chemicals, machinery, automobiles, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology. He also addressed copyright issues related to AI and predicted the trends in laws and regulations governing AI use.

On January 8, 2024, Chosun Biz reported Lee & Ko’s recent win for Boryung Pharmaceutical, noting that “as the efficacy of Dukarb®, Boryung’s hypertension drug, went viral, it became the target of other Korean pharmaceutical companies” but “Boryung has defended its Dukarb® patent all the way from the Intellectual Property Trial and Appeal Board stage to the ensuing trials, with Lee & Ko’s Healthcare Practice Group, led by Ms. Keum Nang Park, playing a key role in the defense.”  Ms. Park remarked in an interview that “this is the first time a Korean pharmaceutical company that has developed an original drug defended its patent rights in a large-scale dispute against multiple generic companies,” further noting that “we felt that this drug should be afforded patent protection especially since it was a new drug developed after many challenges in Korea, where new drug R&D is still rare.”

On December 5, 2023, Hankyung reported Lee & Ko’s recent win in the lawsuits involving Boryung Pharmaceutical’s combination drug patent related to Ducarb®, Boryung’s blockbuster drug.  Representing the patentee, Lee & Ko won in all 10 cases, which included patent invalidation actions and negative scope confirmation actions.  Lee & Ko’s team, with attorneys Keum Nang Park, Heon Lee and Eunkyoung Lyu and patent attorneys Tae Min Kim and Sungmin Cho, strategically crafted arguments based on sound and in-depth analysis of legal theories, ultimately securing this victory.

On September 13, 2023, News1 published an article on Lee & Ko attorney Hwan Sung Park’s panel participation in an upcoming debate to be held by the National Assembly. At the “National Assembly Debate Forum on Introducing K-Discovery for Patent Infringement Litigation,” to be held by the National Assembly and Korean Intellectual Property Office on September 14, Mr. Park, drawing on his years of hands-on experience, will present his opinions on issues relating to the proposed discovery system, including ways for minimizing leak of trade secret information in the course of factual investigation of experts and for excluding legal opinions from the scope of such expert investigation.

On July 23, 2023, Lee & Ko’s Virtual Assets Investigation Response Team, led by Mr. Kwang Bae Park, was featured in the Korea Economic Daily. The Korea Economic Daily reported that “Lee & Ko plans to incorporate the Virtual Assets Investigation Response TF into the official structure as the Virtual Assets Investigation Response Team, as early as the end of this month,” and “assign leading lawyers in the field of virtual assets from the existing criminal and digital finance teams.”