"Investment Based Solely on Patents" New Intellectual Property Direct Investment Fund Established

New Fund of KRW 22.8 Billion Planned This Year
Direct Investment in Patent Acquisition for Licensing Revenue
Expectations for Core Technology Leakage Prevention and Trade Balance Improvement

Startups with excellent patents will have a new path to receive investments based solely on their patents.

On the 14th, the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) announced that it will newly establish an 'Intellectual Property (IP) Direct Investment Fund' worth 22.8 billion KRW this year.

The fund will be operated in a structure that directly invests in intellectual property by purchasing patents and other methods, and generates licensing revenue (royalties) by utilizing them.

KIPO expects that the fund's operation will increase the possibility of patent utilization in the market, help prevent the overseas outflow of core technologies, and improve the trade balance of industrial property rights.

Also, in a situation where voluntary intellectual property direct investment funds are not being established in the private sector, KIPO expects that by the government injecting resources to establish and operate the fund, it will raise interest from the financial sector and other private entities.

Intellectual property direct investment involves each fund management company independently conducting a review process for candidate companies, deciding on the possibility and scale of investment.

The direct investment support targets startups and other small and venture companies that aim to generate revenue through licensing by utilizing domestic industrial property rights.

KIPO plans to improve the main investment target requirements of the new fund this year and start the fund manager selection process through the Korea Venture Investment Corp. (the mother fund operator) in February to March.

Mok Seong-ho, Director of the Industrial Property Policy Bureau at KIPO, said, “The intellectual property direct investment fund will directly utilize patents from domestic SMEs, universities, and public research institutes to prevent the overseas outflow of K-core technologies and bring about improvements in the trade balance of industrial property rights through overseas monetization. We will strive to activate both the existing infrastructure-type ‘corporate investment’ sector and the new investment area of ‘direct investment’ simultaneously, so that the popularization of intellectual property investment can be accelerated.”

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