Shin & Kim and Koreana Patent Firm (“Koreana”) entered into a business-alliance agreement and had a signing ceremony at the Taepyeongro Club in Jung-gu, Seoul on August 22, 2011.

Shin & Kim is one of the largest general law firms in Korea and provides legal service in various areas including M&A, finance, antitrust and competition, intellectual property rights and litigation.  Koreana is also one of the largest and leading patent firms in Korea in the area of intellectual property rights such as patent, trademark, and design patent.

Through the business alliance between the two firms, Shin & Kim will be able to provide clients of Koreana with legal service with respect to the intellectual property right disputes and licensing matters, and Koreana will be able to provide clients of Shin & Kim with technical analysis and advice on broad areas of technology. The purpose of the business alliance is to develop business areas in which the two firms can produce synergy effects based on their professional business capabilities and to provide their clients with better service in such newly-developed areas.

Through the business alliance, Shin & Kim and Koreana will be able to provide their clients with greater ‘Total Legal Service’ encompassing more professional and expert legal advice, litigation counsel and technological advice. Along with the business-alliance agreement signing ceremony today, the two firms reorganized their official websites so that each website can contain the link to the other in its ‘Applicable Business’ section, which marks the beginning of the business alliance in practice.

The business alliance between Shin & Kim and Koreana is not only about the joint handling of the cases subject to the alliance but also about joint marketing campaigns targeting potential clients for the purpose of developing, promoting and stimulating the business under the alliance. For these purposes, the two companies decided to hold regular meetings, jointly provide education, training, etc. for their members, and to dispatch their lawyers and patent attorneys to each other if necessary.
 
The business alliance between Shin & Kim and Koreana presented a new alliance model to the relevant industries in that two huge expert groups in different categories have formed an alliance while keeping each of their organizations, client interests, etc. intact. In particular, as the business alliance is formed to coincide with the initial stage of the opening of the Korean legal-service market, the two companies will put in joint efforts to make the alliance a competitive and successful model both in quality and quantity in the legal-service market expected to become ever more competitive.

The managing partner, Mr. Doo-Sik Kim of Shin & Kim said, “Cooperation between lawyers and patent attorneys is most important in the area of intellectual property rights. Through the business alliance, Shin & Kim and Koreana will be able to provide more expert legal advice, litigation counsel and technological advice by sharing and developing our experience and know-how with each other. This will lay a foundation for the best experts of our two firms to provide our clients with one-stop legal service at the global level.”

The representative Patent Attorney, Mr. Hae Sun Park of Koreana Patent Firm said, “The 30-year law firm Shin & Kim and the 40-year patent firm Koreana desire to join their hands in providing expert service based on mutual trust with a view of fostering the values pursed by our clients. With ‘Technology Wars’ already waged in every corner of the world, Shin & Kim and Koreana hope to serve our clients wherever our competence and expertise are sought meeting such needs of the times.”

■ Introduction to Koreana Patent Firm

<Organization>
A total of 180 members (including 38 patent attorneys and three U.S. lawyers)

<History>
October 2010: 40-year anniversary of the foundation
July 2004: Began providing social service and support under the banner of ‘Return of Corporate Profits to Society’
January 2001: Converted into a corporation (Koreana Patent Firm)
October 1991: Renamed as Koreana Patent & Law Frim
October 1970: Founded as Joon Koo Lee & Partner

< Key Business Areas>
Patent application, registration, trial and litigation, patent investigation, patent analysis, technological valuation, technological transfer, etc. in the area of intellectual property rights including patent, utility model, design, and trademark

<Official Website>
www.koreanap.co.kr