Defense Intellectual Property Rights, Joint Ownership with Defense Industry Companies

The K2 tank, the main battle tank of the Army

[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu, Military Specialist Reporter]The path has been opened for defense companies participating in research and development to jointly own intellectual property rights in the defense sector with the state.

The Ministry of National Defense and the Defense Acquisition Program Administration announced on the 31st that they have prepared the enforcement decree and enforcement rules of the Defense Science and Technology Innovation Promotion Act containing such content, and will implement them starting from the 1st of next month.

Until now, intellectual property rights in the defense sector could only be owned solely by the state or jointly by the state and non-profit institutions such as academia and research institutes.

In addition, to support challenging and innovative research and development, a flexible agreement method has been introduced to expand beyond the strict contract-based defense R&D projects, and the sincere performance recognition system will be expanded. Accordingly, core technology development, exploratory development stages of weapon system development projects, and weapon system development projects under 50 billion won where companies share part of the project cost can proceed under the agreement method.

Furthermore, a legal basis has been established for the Future Challenge Defense Technology project, which was conducted as a pilot project to secure new technologies prior to weapon system requirement decisions.

Meanwhile, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration is currently revising guidelines for intellectual property management, notices on the calculation, collection methods, and procedures of defense science technology fees, and guidelines for core technology R&D management in relation to the enforcement of the Defense Science and Technology Innovation Promotion Act, and plans to finalize and implement them in April.

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