KIPO Supports Rapid Rights Acquisition for Semiconductor Technology with 'Priority Patent Examination'

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) is supporting the rapid rights acquisition of domestic semiconductor technology.

KIPO announced that from the 1st, for one year, patent applications in the semiconductor technology field that are researched, developed, or produced domestically will be designated for prioritized examination.

Through this, domestic semiconductor-related companies, research and development institutions, and universities can receive patent examinations within an average period of about 2.5 months through prioritized examination.

This is 10 months faster than the usual patent examination period of 12.7 months (based on last year), and KIPO expects that prioritized examination will serve as a foundation for the rapid rights acquisition of domestic semiconductor technology.

The designation for prioritized examination is made with the purpose of supporting domestic companies to strengthen their global competitiveness in the semiconductor-related field amid intensifying international competition for technological supremacy.

However, to be designated for prioritized examination, the application must meet conditions such as having a semiconductor-related patent classification (CPC) as the main classification, being filed by a company producing or preparing to produce semiconductor-related products or devices domestically, being filed by an institution supported by national research and development projects, or being filed by a semiconductor-specialized university or graduate school (including industry-academic cooperation foundations) under the "Special Measures Act on Strengthening and Protecting Competitiveness of National Advanced Strategic Industries."

Lee In-sil, Commissioner of KIPO, said, “As the whole government strengthens support in the semiconductor field, support for rapid rights acquisition (patent acquisition) will serve as a catalyst to further enhance the competitiveness of domestic semiconductor technology. KIPO will make every effort to promptly hire retired personnel from the semiconductor field as specialized examiners to ensure that patent application examinations in this field proceed quickly and accurately.”

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