KIPO: "Intellectual Property Is an 'Investment Asset'... Creating a New IP Market"

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] A new intellectual property (IP) financial investment market, where intellectual property is treated as an investment asset, is being established.

On the 11th, the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) announced its '2020 Work Plan.' The plan focuses on pioneering an IP financial investment market that directly invests in intellectual property this year and revising laws to protect intellectual property, enabling IP to serve as a medium for creating new industrial and economic value.

First, KIPO will establish a 220 billion KRW mother fund this year to induce venture investments from private capital. It also plans to support the creation of new forms of direct IP investment in the market, considering investor preferences, such as private public offering-type IP investment funds and IP cloud funds.

In particular, to establish intellectual property as a new investment asset, KIPO will strengthen funding support based on IP by launching a 'specialized recovery institution,' expanding banks handling IP-secured loans, and creating IP funds for venture companies.

The specialized recovery institution will play a role in purchasing and monetizing intellectual property received as collateral in case of default, thereby reducing banks' collateral recovery risks.

KIPO plans to focus its efforts this year on strengthening the IP protection system and eradicating IP infringement and unfair use.

To this end, KIPO will expand the scope of the punitive 'triple damages system' to cover trademark and design infringements and adjust the amount of damages to allow compensation for losses exceeding the rights holder's production capacity.

Additionally, KIPO plans to introduce and operate a 'Korean-style discovery' system as a mechanism to ease the burden of proof on rights holders in cases of IP infringement and to enable early resolution of disputes.

The government will also create conditions for the free use of approximately 430 million patent big data records from government and private research and development (R&D). KIPO plans to establish the 'National Patent Big Data Center' this year to provide analysis results tailored to government and private demands on an ongoing basis. Through this, it aims to discover promising technologies by industry and propose technical solutions to social issues such as infectious diseases.

Park Won-joo, Commissioner of KIPO, stated, “This year, KIPO will innovate the domestic IP ecosystem to maximize the industrial and economic value of intellectual property. We will focus our institutional capabilities on finding the path to innovative growth through intellectual property and driving the new IP market, including IP financial investment, to propel Korea to become a global technology powerhouse.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.