[2023 Budget] KIPO Allocates 739 Billion KRW... "Focus on Examination and Trial Processing Support"

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) has allocated a budget of 739 billion KRW for next year. This represents an increase of 38.3 billion KRW (5.5%) compared to this year, with a focus on supporting examination and trial processing.

According to KIPO on the 30th, the budget for key investment directions next year is allocated as follows: ▲ Providing high-quality examination and trial services using artificial intelligence (139.5 billion KRW) ▲ Growth of the intellectual property market and establishment of fair trade order (42.1 billion KRW) ▲ Future new industry patent-based R&D such as patent big data analysis (40 billion KRW) ▲ Strengthening overseas intellectual property dispute response and expanding domestic intellectual property protection (38.6 billion KRW) ▲ Public participation budget for nurturing invention teachers and intellectual property talent development (0.3 billion KRW).

KIPO first allocated 99 billion KRW to support its core tasks of examination and trial services. In particular, to improve the efficiency of examination and trial services, it plans to develop an AI-based patent information system and completely rebuild the outdated trial system.

A budget of 1.9 billion KRW for AI-based patent administration innovation has been newly reflected for next year, and the budget for building and operating the patent information system (informatization) will increase by 4.7 billion KRW from 33.9 billion KRW this year to 38.6 billion KRW next year.

To help small and venture companies holding excellent patents smoothly secure business funds, continuous support for intellectual property valuation will be provided, and efforts will be strengthened to create an environment where patents acquired by companies can be fairly evaluated in the market.

To this end, KIPO plans to increase the intellectual property valuation support budget by 1.9 billion KRW from 11.6 billion KRW this year to 13.5 billion KRW next year.

Support for discovering promising technologies through patent big data analysis and establishing national R&D directions will also be expanded. For this, KIPO increased the budget for industrial innovation support based on patent big data from 3.7 billion KRW this year to 4.8 billion KRW next year.

Additionally, the budget for supporting the creation of standard patents was increased by 2 billion KRW from 6 billion KRW this year to 8 billion KRW next year, which was also reflected in the next year’s budget plan.

Considering the intensifying global technological hegemony competition, the budget to support domestic export companies against international intellectual property disputes will also be increased. KIPO raised the related budget from 10.7 billion KRW (covering 330 companies) this year to 12.7 billion KRW (covering 402 companies) next year to provide customized response strategies for dispute situations such as warning letter responses to patent disputes.

Furthermore, a budget of 3.9 billion KRW has been allocated next year to build domestic intellectual property protection infrastructure for the creation and protection of intellectual property rights of economically and socially vulnerable groups. This is an increase of 0.3 billion KRW compared to 3.6 billion KRW this year.

In addition, KIPO plans to increase the invention education promotion budget from 0.5 billion KRW this year to 0.8 billion KRW next year to foster private invention education experts and nurture future intellectual property talents through youth invention education via the public participation budget.

KIPO’s budget plan for next year is expected to be finalized in early December after review by the National Assembly.

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