Kim Yong-rae, Commissioner of the Korean Intellectual Property Office, "Intellectual Property as a Stepping Stone for Economic Growth... Focusing on Patent Administration"

Building an Intellectual Property System for Digital Era Transition
Establishing a Strategic Map for Standard Patent Creation of Yuman Technology
Preparing Data Protection and Relief Measures for Metaverse and More
Industry-Specific Examinations, Expanding to All Technologies by 2025

Kim Yong-rae, Commissioner of the Korean Intellectual Property Office, is introducing the KIPO's work plan for next year at the Government Complex Daejeon on the 28th. Photo by KIPO

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] “We will focus our patent administration capabilities to achieve economic growth through intellectual property in the upcoming digital era.” Kim Yong-rae, Commissioner of the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), said this on the 28th while announcing the ‘2022 Work Plan’ at the Government Complex Daejeon.

KIPO plans to concentrate its administrative efforts on establishing an intellectual property system that responds to digital transformation and fostering a virtuous cycle ecosystem of intellectual property creation, utilization, and protection through next year’s work plan.

◆ Promotion of Excellent Intellectual Property Creation and Utilization = First, KIPO will identify promising technologies by analyzing patent big data in key and emerging industries such as AR, helping to set directions for national research and development (R&D). It will also build a ‘Standard Patent Strategy Map’ to derive promising technologies for standard patent creation in urgent fields such as 6G to secure international standards.

Additionally, KIPO will lead technology-based startups and growth by expanding support for patent-based R&D in major technology sectors such as system semiconductors, future vehicles, and bio-health through the creation of core and foundational patents.

To this end, KIPO will increase the scale of intellectual property commercialization funding for 2030 youth startup companies from 54.7 billion KRW this year (15.7 billion KRW in loans, 39 billion KRW in investments) to 81 billion KRW next year (20 billion KRW in loans, 61 billion KRW in investments).

◆ Establishment of a Fair Intellectual Property Protection System = Next year’s KIPO work plan will also focus on preemptive protection measures against unfair competition related to trademarks and designs within the metaverse, which newly emerged in the digital environment, and NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens). It will prepare administrative remedies for damages caused by unauthorized acquisition and use of data in line with the implementation of data protection systems.

Moreover, to enhance SMEs’ ability to respond to intellectual property disputes, KIPO will analyze dispute information to provide companies with information on technology fields and patent data with high dispute risks. It will also expand monitoring target countries and dispute response support to prevent unauthorized appropriation of domestic companies’ intellectual property overseas.

In particular, KIPO plans to strengthen technology protection for companies next year by expanding the investigative scope of KIPO’s technology police to cover all technology leakage crimes and enhance enforcement effectiveness through corrective orders and fines.

◆ Improvement of Intellectual Property Examination and Trial Systems and Establishment of Future Intellectual Property Foundations = Administrative efforts will also be intensified to prevent cases where domestic companies fail to receive technology protection due to the flood of new technologies falling into blind spots.

To this end, KIPO will expand the definitions of inventions and designs to proactively grant intellectual property rights to new types of technologies and designs emerging in the digital environment. It will introduce a standard character trademark application system that allows the use of various fonts with a single application, improving convenience for trademark applicants.

Furthermore, KIPO will establish customized examination policies supporting industrial innovation by analyzing domestic and international industry and patent trends, expanding and applying them to all technologies by 2025.

KIPO will also focus its capabilities on building a future intellectual property foundation. It plans to expand the operation of regional intellectual property-focused universities to cultivate specialized personnel needed for regionally specialized industries. Leading the establishment of international norms on ‘AI-created inventions’ in the digital era, a major agenda of the IP5 (the five advanced patent offices), is part of KIPO’s blueprint for building a future intellectual property foundation.

Kim Yong-rae, Commissioner of KIPO, said, “As the transition to a digital society accelerates, the value of intellectual property data is also increasing.” He added, “KIPO will focus its capabilities on actively utilizing excellent intellectual property data and protecting and fostering new types of digital intellectual property to support economic growth through intellectual property in the digital era.”

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