The Korean Bar Association welcomed a Constitutional Court decision finding unconstitutional a provision of the Patent Attorney Act that requires all patent attorneys to join a single association. The Korea Patent Attorneys Association expressed regret and said it would move to revise the law.
In a statement issued April 30, the bar association said it “strongly welcomes” the court’s decision for recognizing the patent profession’s “unique dual qualification system” and the structural conflict it has produced. It called the ruling an important starting point for reforms aimed at providing better intellectual property legal services to the public.
The bar association said the Patent Attorney Act has long recognized two paths to qualification: passing the patent attorney exam and holding a lawyer’s license. It argued that despite this dual structure, Article 11 forced all patent attorneys to join a single association without regard to those differences.
Noting that seven of the court’s nine justices found the provision unconstitutional, the bar association said the decision effectively confirms unconstitutionality and urged the National Assembly to meet the court’s legislative deadline of Oct. 31, 2027. It said the ruling sets a constitutional standard that the independent will and professional interests of lawyer-patent attorneys should no longer be sacrificed within a single-organization system.
The bar association said it would take part in legislative discussions to ensure the ruling leads to practical reforms that protect the rights of lawyer-patent attorneys and the public.
The Korea Patent Attorneys Association said the decision “ignores the essence of the problem” and leaves structural conflict unresolved. It argued that the conflict of interest between patent attorneys and lawyers stems from the current system that automatically grants patent attorney qualifications to lawyers, and said the only fundamental solution is to abolish that automatic qualification system entirely.
Association President Jeon Jong-hak said the ruling was meaningful in that it reaffirmed the constitutionality of mandatory membership in the association itself. But he said the automatic qualification system for lawyers was shown to be the root cause and that the group would immediately begin work on revising the Patent Attorney Act to abolish it.
Jeon said that as intellectual property becomes directly tied to national competitiveness, the patent attorney system should be designed from the perspective of industry and the country, not professional turf. He said the association would strengthen its role in boosting industrial competitiveness and protecting technology through institutional improvements.
The Constitutional Court ruled April 29 that the provision requiring all patent attorneys to join the Korea Patent Attorneys Association violates the Constitution. The National Assembly must revise the provision by October next year.
Of the nine justices, four — Kim Sang-hwan, Kim Hyeong-du, Jeong Hyeong-sik and Oh Young-jun — issued a constitutional nonconformity opinion, while three — Kim Bok-hyeong, Cho Han-chang and Ma Eun-hyeok — found it unconstitutional. Justices Jeong Jeong-mi and Jeong Gye-seon dissented, finding it constitutional.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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