It turned out that 76.6% of this year's caseload for the Ministry of Intellectual Property special judicial police (special investigators) technology police, who investigate patent and trade secret infringements, were transferred from the previous year. The average investigation period also grew to 19.3 months, about 2.5 times longer than five years ago. With a serious case backlog, some noted that once the prosecution's direct supplementary investigation authority is abolished in Oct., it could become even harder to cut off damage from technology leaks early.
According to data obtained by ChosunBiz from the office of Representative Koo Ja-geun of the People Power Party on the National Assembly's Trade. Industry Energy. SMEs. and Startups Committee on the 7th, of the total 807 cases handled by the Ministry of Intellectual Property special investigators' technology police through July this year, 618 cases, or 76.6%, were transferred from the previous year. Newly filed cases this year totaled 189.
The share of transferred caseload has risen rapidly in recent years. The ratio of previous-year transfers in total caseload increased from 36.9% in 2021 to 62.7% last year. In terms of case count, it grew about 2.7 times from 220 to 585 over the same period. Total caseload also increased about 57%, from 596 cases in 2021 to 933 last year.
The average investigation period lengthened about 2.5 times, from 7.8 months in 2021 to 19.3 months as of July this year. The average investigation period was 9.4 months in 2022 and 9.3 months in 2023, rose to 12.6 months in 2024 and 17.6 months last year, and has now exceeded 19 months this year.
Amid this, there are concerns that the amended Criminal Procedure Act taking effect in Oct. could become another variable prolonging investigations. When the amended law takes effect, if additional investigation is needed for a forwarded case, prosecutors will request supplementary investigation from investigative agencies instead of investigating directly. The Ministry of Intellectual Property special investigators lack authority to directly investigate additional allegations outside their scope of duties and have relied on prosecutors' supplementary investigations. While the default compliance period for investigative agencies receiving a supplementary investigation request is one month, the number of requests is not capped.
Koo said, "Patent and trade secret cases often involve complex technical issues and vast amounts of material to verify," and added, "If supplementary investigation requests and file transfers are repeated between investigative agencies and the prosecution, the overall case processing time could become even longer."
The longer an investigation drags on, the later the point at which damage from technology leaks or intellectual property infringement can be cut off early. Major investigation cases submitted by the Ministry of Intellectual Property included examples where economic damage ranging from the 100 billion won level to as high as 10 trillion won was prevented or blocked. In July last year, the overseas leak of national advanced strategic technology related to secondary batteries was blocked, preventing economic damage on the order of 10 trillion won.
Koo said, "Ever more sophisticated and advanced patent crimes and technology leaks are problems that threaten industrial competitiveness and economic security beyond damage to individual corporations," and added, "Investigation delays are not mere administrative holdups; because they can lead to damage to corporations and the national industry, we will continue to examine and remedy shortcomings in the intellectual property crime investigation system."