Patent Office Supports Branding and Overseas Expansion of 'K-Workthrough'

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) will support the branding and overseas expansion of Korean-style walk-through technology.

On the 13th, KIPO announced that it held a meeting with developers and inventors of Korean-style walk-through equipment at the Government Complex Daejeon.

The meeting was organized to share the results of discussions on intellectual property rights protection and overseas expansion support, which KIPO had individually held with walk-through inventors, and to plan future strategies.

Previously, KIPO collaborated with related government ministries to facilitate rapid domestic and international patent applications for Korean-style walk-through technology, establish mass production systems, and devise overseas expansion plans.

Supporting domestic patent applications for Korean-style walk-through technology is a representative example, with all walk-through technologies having completed domestic patent applications to date, and consulting for rights acquisition for overseas applications being provided.

Additionally, KIPO plans to link individual inventors with companies capable of producing walk-through equipment and, upon requests for quality certification and overseas export support, will cooperate with related ministries such as the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups to discover manufacturing companies, provide ’Brand K‘ certification, and support commercialization funding.

At the meeting, Korean-style walk-through inventors reached a consensus that even if patent rights are acquired domestically, the technology should not be monopolized by specific countries or regions during pandemic situations such as the COVID-19 outbreak, but rather be widely utilized for public benefit by supporting developing countries.

In this regard, KIPO and the inventors signed a memorandum of understanding at the meeting to mutually cooperate on the public use, improvement, and development of intellectual property rights related to walk-through technology.

In particular, KIPO Commissioner Park Won-joo proposed the branding of Korean-style walk-through equipment as ‘K-Walkthrough’ at the meeting, gaining agreement from the inventors. Through this, KIPO plans to label Korean-style walk-through equipment that has entered overseas markets with the ‘K-Walkthrough’ brand to promote the excellence of domestic equipment worldwide.

Furthermore, to establish a comprehensive support system for Korean-style walk-through technology reflecting the discussions with meeting participants, KIPO will cooperate with related ministries including the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Commissioner Park Won-joo stated, “Based on the Korean-style walk-through technology born during the COVID-19 response, we will spare no effort to support domestic companies in continuously creating excellent patents in the field of infectious disease diagnosis and treatment.”

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