Seoul City and Patent Office Select 13 Projects to Solve Social Issues... Recruiting Citizen Ideas

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 27th that it will hold the 'KIPO-Seoul City Idea Contest' together with the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) to solve various social problems in the city through citizens' creative ideas. The contest period is 10 weeks, from the 28th to July 6th.

This contest includes a total of 13 tasks: 7 for idea sharing and 6 for idea trading. For the idea sharing tasks (7), ideas are received free of charge from citizens for nonprofit use, or if profit is generated from the shared ideas, at least two-thirds of the profit must be returned to society. For the idea trading tasks (6), selected idea proposers will receive compensation within the budget set for each task through negotiation.

The selected tasks were proposed since last December by companies, nonprofit organizations, and civic groups based in Seoul, focusing on social problems to be solved. A total of 32 tasks were submitted, and after selection and negotiation processes, 13 final tasks were chosen.

The idea sharing tasks include ▲developing strengths and creating jobs for marriage immigrants (preliminary social enterprise ‘Dadareugo’), ▲ideas to reduce illegal parking on bicycle roads (Green Transportation Movement), ▲expanding online transactions between wholesale market distributors and small retailers in alley markets (Seoul Agricultural and Marine Products Corporation), ▲solving the university textbook poverty problem for vulnerable college students (nonprofit organization ‘Sipsiilbap’), ▲universal design for traffic life safety by citizens, of citizens, and for citizens (social cooperative ‘Amsa Urban Regeneration Sangsangnaru’), ▲information provision ideas to help visually impaired people use public transportation easily (social enterprise ‘SM Planet’), and ▲street advertising ideas that do not spoil urban aesthetics (nonprofit organization ‘Korea Building Managers Association’), totaling 7 tasks.

The idea trading tasks include ▲functional material ideas for female hormones to improve menopausal symptoms in women (social venture ‘Healthy Spoon’), ▲ideas to assist elderly people in using digital devices (Good Attitude), ▲ideas to improve lane visibility at night or during rain (social enterprise ‘Kim’s Ad’), ▲ideas for developing safe food products using imperfect agricultural products (social venture ‘Sweetdo’), ▲ideas to activate composting of leftover food waste (Onsunhwan Cooperative), and ▲ideas to prevent unauthorized discharge of wastewater through excellent pipes (stormwater drainage pipes) (Hoyeon Soft), totaling 6 tasks. Selected ideas will go through a trading process, with maximum compensation ranging from 6 million KRW to 600,000 KRW depending on the task.

Applications for ideas can be submitted until June 8th via the idea platform ‘Idearo’ (www.idearo.kr), and ideas can be registered from June 9th to July 6th. Idea evaluations will be conducted in July, and awards will be given in August. Outstanding ideas that solve the tasks will receive the Seoul Mayor’s Award (no separate prize money), the KIPO Commissioner’s Award, the Korea Invention Promotion Association President’s Award, and prize money. For more detailed information, inquiries can be made to the Korea Invention Promotion Association Intellectual Property Exchange or the idea platform ‘Idearo’.

Min Su-hong, Social Innovation Officer, said, "This contest will serve as an opportunity to promote innovation activities in public institutions or nonprofit organizations that need to solve urgent issues," and added, "We look forward to active participation from citizens."

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