Government Holds Patent Analysis Briefing for Domestic COVID-19 Vaccine Companies

KIPO Explains Key Patents for Each mRNA Vaccine Process... Also Introduces Priority Examination System

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Ji-hee] The government held a session to explain issues related to vaccine patents to domestic COVID-19 vaccine development companies and others.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Korean Intellectual Property Office, and the Korea Health Industry Development Institute held an online "COVID-19 Vaccine Patent Analysis Briefing" on the 29th for domestic vaccine companies and research institutions. This briefing was organized to share the interim analysis results on major patent-related issues for each COVID-19 vaccine production process in connection with the promotion of the "Global Vaccine Hub."

The government is operating an inter-ministerial "Global Vaccine Hub Promotion Task Force (TF)" aiming for the successful implementation of the "Korea-US Global Vaccine Partnership" agreed upon at the Korea-US summit in May and to leap forward as a global vaccine hub.

The Korean Intellectual Property Office participates in the TF and supports vaccine companies through tasks such as tailored patent strategy support for vaccine technology independence, discovery of core technologies through patent analysis and support for patent utilization, protection of domestic companies' technologies, and support for dispute response. At the briefing, the Intellectual Property Office explained the major technologies, raw materials, core patents, and current major patent disputes that may arise in each process if domestic companies develop COVID-19 vaccines based on the messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) platform.

Additionally, the Intellectual Property Office introduced the vaccine new technology priority examination system, which was implemented on the 23rd of last month. The priority examination system is a system that prioritizes the examination of patents filed by vaccine development companies or companies producing or conducting clinical trials of vaccines domestically. The examination period, which usually takes 14 months, is expected to be drastically shortened to about 2 months.

Kang Do-tae, Vice Minister of Health and Welfare, said, "We explained that an inter-ministerial support system is being activated to become a vaccine powerhouse," adding, "We will make our best efforts for vaccine companies by linking and providing support policies from each ministry as a package, not only related to patents."

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