Traditionally a software was not included in product which is the subject to protection of the patent law, thus,  a software embodying a process invention can be protected by the patent law only if saved in storage such as CD, USB and distributed offline.

Example) In the case where ‘A’ transmits an infringing SW to ‘B’ and ‘B’ sells it in CD to ‘C’, ‘B’ violates the patent law obviously, but there is a problem that the violation of ‘A’ is not evident.

 ☞ ​It is unreasonable to differentiate patent protection depending on the distribution channel (online or offline) of SW though it is the same software.

 ☞​ As the environment of the SW distribution is changing toward online, it is required to improve the environment for protecting patent related to software which is distributed online.

KIPO has revised the patent law for protection of SW transmission to protect a SW no matter how the SW is distributed online or offline, therefore infringement of patent right can be established if someone sells both online and offline a SW that appropriates others’ patent.

However, transmitting* a SW including patent online is not direct violation of the patent law. Since it is aiming at preventing infringement of sellers who distributes a SW illegally while recognizing they are violating the patent law, private use or innocent use in home of SW is not act of infringement.

* Simple SW transmission, upload & download using a cloud computing, etc.