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, however, expressed regret and said it will move to revise the law.
In a statement released April 30, the bar association said it “strongly welcomes” the court’s decision for confronting what it called the profession’s “unique dual qualification system” and the structural conflict it has produced. It said the ruling is an important starting point for improving systems to provide better intellectual property legal services to the public.
The bar association noted that the Patent Attorney Act has long recognized two routes to qualification: passing the patent attorney exam and holding a lawyer’s license. It argued that despite this dual structure, Article 11 uniformly compelled all patent attorneys to join a single association, ignoring the system’s special characteristics.
Citing that seven of the nine justices found the challenged 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 not be “unilaterally sacrificed” within a single-organization framework.
The bar association said it will actively participate in legislative discussions so the decision leads to practical reforms, and it pledged to pursue changes that protect the rights of lawyer-patent attorneys and the public.
The Korea Patent Attorneys Association said the court’s decision “ignored the essence of the problem” and left structural conflict unresolved. It argued that conflicts of interest between patent attorneys and lawyers stem from the current system that automatically grants patent attorney qualifications to lawyers, and said a fundamental solution requires abolishing that automatic-qualification system entirely.
Association President Jeon Jong-hak said the decision was meaningful in that it reaffirmed the constitutionality of the mandatory membership system itself. But he said the automatic qualification for lawyers was shown to be the root cause of the dispute, and the association will immediately begin work on revising the Patent Attorney Act to abolish it.
Jeon added that as intellectual property is increasingly 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 will 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.
Among the nine justices, four — Kim Sang-hwan, Kim Hyeong-du, Jeong Hyeong-sik and Oh Young-jun — voted for a constitutional nonconformity decision, while three — Kim Bok-hyeong, Cho Han-chang and Ma Eun-hyeok — found it unconstitutional. Justices Jeong Jeong-mi and Jeong Gye-seon voted to uphold it.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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