The first-ever court judgement recognizing patent infringement for postings on an overseas e-commerce platform

Lee & Ko successfully secured the IP High Court’s first-ever judgment holding that posting and selling products falling within the scope of a Korean patent on an overseas e-commerce platform constitutes an “offer for assignment” and therefore amounts to patent infringement in Korea.

The Chinese company Y advertised and listed for sale products covered by a Korean patent owned by Italian sock knitting machine manufacturer Lonati on the Chinese platform Alibaba and on its own website. In doing so, Y provided product information in Korean, displayed prices in Korean won, indicated domestic delivery options, and even offered consultation services — thereby clearly targeting Korean consumers. As a result, Lonati filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Y, seeking an injunction.

The court of first instance emphasized the principle of territoriality and ruled that the posting activity occurred overseas where Alibaba’s servers were located, thereby denying the injunction. In response, Lee & Ko highlighted the need to ensure effective patent protection in the era of global online commerce. Lee & Ko argued convincingly that, consistent with the global trend of relaxing strict territoriality to ensure substantive patent protection, Y’s acts of providing Korean-language product information, displaying prices in Korean won, and specifying domestic delivery options constituted a clear inducement of sales targeting Korean consumers.

The IP High Court accepted these arguments, holding that, irrespective of the server’s physical location, Y’s postings constituted an “offer for assignment” directly targeting Korean consumers. On that basis, it recognized patent infringement and granted the injunction.

This judgment marks the first case in which the Korean courts have acknowledged that, even if a foreign company posts infringing products on an overseas e-commerce platform, such conduct may qualify as an “offer for assignment” under Korean patent law if it is deemed to substantially induce sales to Korean consumers, thereby amounting to patent infringement. By analyzing the substantive nature of cross-border transactions on online platforms and drawing upon foreign case law trends, Lee & Ko has successfully introduced a new interpretative standard for protecting intellectual property rights in connection with postings on overseas platforms, thereby broadening the scope of substantive patent protection in Korea.