Lee & Ko stays strong in Tier one for its patent contentious practice owing to a strong team of 26 litigators, half of which have an engineering background. On the prosecution side, the firm teams up with sister company FirstLaw Lee & Ko, adding size and depth with 60 patent and trade mark attorneys and 120 more engineers in the science and technical sectors.
The firm's prominent clients in patent infringement and invalidation actions include ExxonMobil, Procter & Gamble, Eli Lilly, LG Life Sciences and Samsung Heavy Industries, while Jack Daniel's, Lacoste and 7-Eleven have all turned to the team for trade mark work.
Heads of practice Jae Hoon Kim and Choong Jin Oh are defending a large Korean chemical company in an infringement suit concerning a patent related to metallocene polyethylene. In a continuing case, Samsung Mobile Display is enlisting the firm's Sung Woo Lim and Un Ho Kim in filing a preliminary injunction action against an engineer who used to work for the company.
In copyright, the team has participated in several newsworthy cases. Five leading cable TV network companies, including CJ Hello Vision Co and C&M Co, are seeking guidance from the outfit in a dispute against three of the country's top terrestrial TV broadcasters. The plaintiffs alleged that the clients infringed their broadcasting rights by receiving land signals and transmitting those signals to cable TV subscribers. Huge royalties will be imposed on the client if found guilty.
In another important matter, Korea Music Copyright Association is enlisting the group in filing a claim for injunction against Starbucks Korea. The latter is accused of infringing the copyright of certain authors by playing discs compiled by a music service provider in its stores. The outcome of the case will influence what types of music services can be provided in public by companies such as Starbucks.