‘Korea-Saudi’ Joint Patent Examination from Next Month... First Among Middle Eastern Countries

Joint Patent Examination Process Diagram. Provided by the Korean Intellectual Property Office

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) announced on the 30th that it will start a joint patent examination pilot project between South Korea and Saudi Arabia from the 1st of next month.

Joint patent examination offers the advantage of providing more accurate patent examination services than general applications by having examiners from both countries check for prior art similar to the invention when the same invention is filed for a patent in both countries, and sharing the results.

Saudi Arabia is the first Middle Eastern country to conduct joint patent examinations with South Korea. Utilizing this, both countries will be able to receive examination services within a maximum of six months from the date of examination request. Considering that the average general examination period in Saudi Arabia was 21 months as of 2018, this shortens the examination period by about 15 months.

With a total population of about 34 million, Saudi Arabia has the largest domestic market among Middle Eastern countries. Recently, Korean companies have been steadily expanding their presence, riding the wave of the Hallyu premium in sectors such as K-food, K-diagnostics and quarantine, and K-beauty.

In addition, KIPO explained that the joint patent examination between the two countries will play a positive role in helping Korean companies that have entered or plan to enter the Saudi market secure patent rights. As of this month, a total of 29 Korean companies have entered Saudi Arabia, and from 2015 to 2019, the cumulative number of patent applications filed by Korean companies in Saudi Arabia reached 301.

Above all, KIPO expects that the implementation of joint patent examinations between the two countries will bring effects of securing patent rights and market preemption to companies preparing to expand their business to other Middle Eastern countries, starting with Saudi Arabia.

Kim Ji-soo, Director of the Patent Examination Planning Bureau at KIPO, said, “The joint patent examination between Korea and Saudi Arabia, starting next month, is a type of examination cooperation project aimed at providing practical assistance to Korean companies that have entered Saudi Arabia in securing patent rights in the Middle East region,” adding, “KIPO will expand joint patent examinations focusing on countries with high demand for overseas market entry and international examination cooperation, supporting Korean companies to easily secure patent rights overseas.”

Meanwhile, joint patent examination is a system first proposed and introduced by South Korea in October 2014. Prior to Saudi Arabia, KIPO has conducted pilot projects with the United States (from September 2015) and China (from January 2019 to December 2020, currently temporarily suspended).

Among these, the Korea-US joint patent examination has shown not only the effect of shortening the examination processing period but also a 90.2% agreement rate in patent examination results between the two countries, which is higher than the 68.6% agreement rate in general examinations.

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