Patent Office Expands Carbon Neutrality 'Priority Examination'... Newly Designates Bio, Advanced Robots, and AI

The scope of priority examination for carbon neutrality-related technologies is being expanded, and national advanced strategic industries such as bio, advanced robotics, and artificial intelligence are newly included in the priority examination targets. The expansion of priority examination aims to support domestic companies in early securing rights for their technologies and swiftly obtaining patents in major foreign countries. The intention is to enable companies to enhance their competitiveness and enter overseas markets based on patents quickly secured domestically.

The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) announced on the 19th that the scope of priority examination, which had been limited to carbon dioxide capture, transportation, and storage technologies for greenhouse gas reduction, will be broadened to allow priority examination for the entire carbon neutrality field, including next-generation nuclear power and renewable energy technologies.

The expanded scope of priority examination for the carbon neutrality field will be applied starting from the 19th. Newly applicable targets include next-generation nuclear power technologies such as hydrogen, ammonia, small modular reactors (SMR), and high-level radioactive waste management; national strategic technologies such as advanced mobility including electric vehicles and hydrogen electric vehicles; and renewable energy production technologies such as solar power, wind power, hydropower, marine energy, geothermal, and hydrothermal energy. If patents are assigned relevant patent classifications (CPC) related to these technologies, they will be eligible for priority examination going forward.

KIPO has expanded and re-designated the scope of the secondary battery field, whose priority examination designation period had expired, and newly designated bio, advanced robotics, and artificial intelligence fields as priority examination targets.

In the secondary battery field, in addition to existing materials, parts, equipment, and manufacturing or design areas, performance inspection, evaluation, control management (EMS), and recycling technologies of secondary batteries are newly included in the priority examination targets.

Furthermore, in the newly designated bio, advanced robotics, and artificial intelligence fields, domestic companies that have been assigned relevant patent classifications as main classifications in these fields and are either in production or preparing for production, as well as applications resulting from national research and development projects or specialized universities, are included in the priority examination targets.

When priority examination is applied, the examination processing period is drastically shortened, enabling rapid acquisition of patent rights. Through this, KIPO expects the average patent examination processing period, which previously took more than 18 months, to be reduced to within two months at most.

In fact, the average processing period for priority examination in the semiconductor and display fields was 1.6 months (as of the end of December last year), which is 12.1 months shorter than the average examination processing period of 13.7 months without priority examination. This verifies the effectiveness of priority examination.

Previously, KIPO sequentially included semiconductors (November 2022), displays (November 2023), and secondary batteries (February 2024) in the priority examination targets. With the newly added bio field, KIPO has placed all ‘four major national advanced strategic industries’ on the priority examination table.

Along with the expansion of priority examination targets, application requirements are also being simplified. A representative example is the removal of the ‘self-conducted prior art search’ requirement, which had increased the burden on companies applying for priority examination due to its complex and complicated documentation method. Additionally, the application requirements for the priority examination type ‘priority examination by self-implementation’ are also being relaxed.

Kim Wanki, Commissioner of KIPO, said, “In an era of rapidly changing technological competition, swift rights acquisition is the most important means for companies to strengthen their competitiveness. KIPO will spare no effort to support domestic companies leading innovation in the carbon neutrality field and national advanced strategic industries to dominate the global stage.”

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