The Korean Intellectual Property Office launches the first 'Intellectual Property Crowdfunding' product through Wadiz. Photo by Wadiz website capture
[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The first crowdfunding product that allows individuals to directly invest in Intellectual Property (IP) will be launched through the domestic crowdfunding platform company, Wadiz.
According to the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) on the 15th, the first product is "High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC)" technology, where investors invest in standard patents and receive profit distribution when patent royalties are generated from the international standard patent management organization.
In a similar structure, Heungkuk Securities launched the first private fund investing in HEVC standard patents in April last year, paying investors an annual return of over 5%.
Additionally, KIPO explained that the Korea Fund of Funds' patent account invested in domestic communication standard patents developed in 2017 and achieved triple returns in just 1 year and 8 months.
Crowdfunding refers to a method where fund seekers gather money from a large crowd through an online platform, and "intellectual property financial investment" products refer to investment products that directly invest in intellectual property rights such as patents to earn profits through royalties, sales, and other methods.
However, until now, it has been difficult for individuals to directly invest in intellectual property, and investments were mainly institution-centered.
In this regard, KIPO announced the "Strategy to Promote Activation of Intellectual Property Financial Investment" at the National Policy Issue Inspection Coordination Meeting chaired by the Prime Minister on the 2nd, enabling individuals to directly invest in intellectual property.
The core is to launch various financial investment products tailored to individual investor preferences and release intellectual property crowdfunding products through collaboration between the crowdfunding platform (Wadiz) and patent management specialized companies (ID companies).
In particular, KIPO plans to create a fund worth 41 billion KRW that directly invests in intellectual property using policy funds to support and activate private intellectual property financial investment.
Detailed information on this will be announced next month on the Korea Venture Investment Corp. website.
Park Ho-hyung, Director of the Industrial Property Policy Bureau at KIPO, said, "Patents and other intellectual property rights are also a type of asset that can be invested in," adding, "KIPO will create an environment where the public can easily invest in intellectual property and support the launch of the second and third private intellectual property crowdfunding products."
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