Patent Office Supports Intellectual Property Commercialization for Companies in Daejeon and Seongnam Regions

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) announced on the 17th that it will support the commercialization of intellectual property for local companies in collaboration with Daejeon City and Seongnam City as part of this year’s ‘Intellectual Property Product Innovation Support Project.’

This project focuses on integrated support for commercialization, including solving technical problems arising during the productization process of excellent intellectual property through collaboration between KIPO and local governments, prototype production, technology protection, and investment attraction support.

The support targets small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) established less than seven years ago located in Daejeon and Seongnam. Applications can be submitted from the 18th of this month to the 15th of next month through the websites of Daejeon Technopark and Seongnam Industry Promotion Agency.

This year’s Intellectual Property Product Innovation Support Project is divided into new product planning, problem-solving, and product advancement tasks according to the support content, with up to 82 million KRW supported per task.

Previously, KIPO has been implementing the Intellectual Property Product Innovation Support Project since 2012 to support the commercialization of excellent intellectual property owned by SMEs.

Through this, more than 400 companies have received support from KIPO up to last year, and after receiving support, they have achieved an average annual sales increase of 38%, new intellectual property rights applications (137 cases as of 2019), and technology protection effects, according to KIPO.

For example, Everybot Co., Ltd., which received support in 2017, launched an improved product with enhanced cleaning functions and design support, selling more than 50,000 units in about seven months.

Also, Prime Co., Ltd., a commercial dishwasher manufacturer, solved problems related to automated processes through the 2018 support project and based on this, signed an exclusive supply contract with Ourhome for two years (2019).

This year, KIPO’s project direction is to maximize the effect of corporate support by expanding the scale of the Intellectual Property Product Innovation Support Project in cooperation with related organizations such as the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, local governments, and Creative Economy Innovation Centers, and diversifying follow-up support reflecting the demands of existing beneficiary companies.

Choi Byung-seok, Head of Patent Commercialization at KIPO, said, “We will ensure that the Intellectual Property Product Innovation Support Project can be revitalized through collaboration among related organizations,” adding, “Through this, excellent intellectual property of local SMEs will be actively utilized, and a virtuous cycle structure will be established where companies grow and continuously create new intellectual property.”

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