Patent Office to Centralize International Patent Applications 'Online' Starting Next Month

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The international patent electronic filing method through the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) will be unified.

According to the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) on the 28th, international patent electronic filing has so far been conducted in two ways: ‘PCT-SAFE,’ which requires installing a program directly on a personal computer (PC), and ‘ePCT,’ an internet web-based method.

However, starting from the 1st of next month, electronic filing will only be possible through ‘ePCT.’ ‘ePCT’ is a web-based filing method where applicants prepare and submit applications on the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) website.

With the unification of electronic filing, WIPO will also terminate maintenance and support for the PCT-SAFE software, which had been provided to improve user convenience and system operation efficiency.

Through this, KIPO expects to resolve inconveniences such as time differences, language barriers, and international call charges that domestic ePCT users have faced when using the WIPO PCT Customer Service Center located in Geneva, Switzerland, during the international patent application process.

Measures to minimize confusion on the ground due to the unification of electronic filing have also been prepared. Earlier, WIPO selected ePCT customer support experts working 365 days a year and deployed them at KIPO’s Seoul office since January to help domestic users quickly adapt to ePCT filing.

Additionally, KIPO plans to expand the role of customer support experts in consultation with WIPO and to closely communicate with applicants and patent office agents to resolve difficulties domestic users experience during the use of ePCT.

Kim Ki-beom, Director of the Information Customer Support Bureau at KIPO, said, "We will cooperate with WIPO on user education and function improvements so that existing PCT-SAFE users can conveniently and stably use ePCT."

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