The appeal is dismissed.

The costs of appeal are assessed against the Plaintiff.

The grounds of appeal are examined (to the extent of supplement in case of supplemental appellate briefs not timely filed).

1. Case summary

A. A (hereinafter referred to as “A”) and the Plaintiff are all subsidiaries of D (hereinafter referred to as “D”).

A is a patentee of the instant patent invention (patent number I, patent right duration April 24, 201) of the F, the general name of which is “E”.

On July 31, 1997, the Plaintiff obtained import marketing approval from the Commissioner of the Korea Food and Drug Administration (hereinafter referred to as the “Administrator of the Food and Drug Administration”) on “E” and “J 10mg” (hereinafter collectively referred to as the “Plaintiff’s products”) and imported and sold the Plaintiff’s products to the Republic of Korea.

After that, the Plaintiff’s products were determined as medical care benefits subject to the National Health Insurance Act, and the upper limit of the benefits was determined, and were publicly notified as the list of pharmaceutical benefits and the upper limit of the benefits.

B. On April 29, 2008, the Defendant reported to the Administrator of the Food and Drug Administration the products manufactured and sold with respect to “L 10mg” on November 27, 2009 (hereinafter collectively referred to as “Defendant products”).

Defendant Product is a drug of the same kind as that of the Plaintiff Product.

(hereinafter referred to as “the same type of medicine”. After reporting the manufacture and sale items, the Defendant requested the Health Insurance Review Board Director to determine the Defendant’s product as the health care benefit subject to the National Health Insurance (hereinafter referred to as “application for determination of the health care benefit subject to the instant health care benefit”).

At the time, the defendant was scheduled to sell the product of this case after the patent term expires.

The Minister of Health and Welfare determined the defendant's products as medical care benefits and registered them in the medicine benefit list.

C. On November 5, 2010, the Patent Court held that the nonobviousness of the instant patent invention is denied in a lawsuit filed by the Defendant for revocation of a trial decision, and thus the patent registration is invalid.