Patent Office "Guiding National R&D Strategy with Patent Big Data"

The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) will guide the direction of national research and development strategy formulation through patent big data analysis.

On the 22nd, KIPO announced the "2025 Major Work Promotion Plan" containing these details. The promotion plan focuses on overcoming deteriorating economic conditions such as domestic economic downturn and intensified protectionism through intellectual property policies.

First, by utilizing patent big data and strengthening examination and trial capabilities, KIPO aims to enhance technological competitiveness and secure technological sovereignty in future advanced industry sectors.

Patent big data is a concentrated collection of 600 million global advanced technology information records. KIPO plans to conduct in-depth analysis of patent trends related to research and development projects in 200 advanced technology fields using patent big data, making the results available for use by government, companies, and research institutions.

Additionally, based on inventor information in quantum technology and artificial intelligence (AI) fields, KIPO plans to build a "Global Inventor Map" to strengthen its guiding role in the process of establishing national research and development strategies.

Plans to improve examination and trial services will also be promoted. Starting next month, the scope of "priority examination" will be expanded to include bio, AI, advanced robotics, and carbon neutrality fields. Sixty private experts will be hired as patent examiners to complete a patent examination package support system across advanced industry sectors.

Leveraging secured technological capabilities as a driving force, KIPO will also create a growth foundation encompassing the utilization and protection of intellectual property to enable innovative companies to make a leap forward. To this end, KIPO will promote achieving an intellectual property finance scale of 12 trillion KRW, including establishing a 100 billion KRW deep tech joint fund this year in cooperation with the Financial Services Commission.

Furthermore, by expanding the endowment for the recovery support organization, which acts as a safety device for intellectual property secured loans, KIPO will provide incentives for banks to offer intellectual property secured loans, supporting financial institutions to play a catalyst role in innovation.

To respond to the diversification of counterfeit product distribution channels such as SNS and overseas direct purchases, KIPO will introduce continuous online counterfeit product monitoring using AI technology in March. Habitual and large-scale distribution acts detected during monitoring will be linked to planned investigations by the Special Judicial Police for Trademarks, and a cooperative system with major online platforms will also be established.

Efforts will also focus on developing valuation models to accurately calculate damages from technology leakage and introducing evidence collection systems to secure proof of patent infringement, thereby preparing practical measures to help companies suffering from intellectual property infringement receive real relief.

In addition, KIPO plans to actively support overseas expansion of excellent intellectual property-holding companies through customized support such as patent utilization strategy consulting tailored to company circumstances and lowering the threshold for intellectual property secured loans for export companies.

Kim Wanki, Commissioner of KIPO, stated, "This year, KIPO will support the transformation of innovation momentum into technological competitiveness by utilizing patent big data and technical expertise. We will also establish a foundation for companies to sustain growth based on technological capabilities and expand into overseas markets."

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