Patent Office, Women's Everyday Invention Idea Contest

Life Invention Korea Poster. Provided by the Korean Intellectual Property Office

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The Korean Intellectual Property Office announced on the 20th that it will accept ideas for participation in the '2022 Lifestyle Invention Korea' until March 31.

Lifestyle Invention Korea is conducted with the purpose of discovering ideas that women can use to resolve inconveniences in daily life and create new value, supporting them through prototype production and commercialization.

The participation categories are divided into ideas that have not been filed for patents, utility models, or designs (Category 1) and ideas that have been filed but not yet commercialized (Category 2).

Submitted ideas will be evaluated for commercial viability and marketability through document screening, prior art investigation, and interview assessments.

If an idea receives a high score in the evaluation and is selected for support, the participant can receive assistance such as expert mentoring, prototype production, intellectual property application, and commercialization consulting.

Any woman in the Republic of Korea can participate in the contest, and selected female idea submitters will be awarded government prizes including the Presidential Award and invention encouragement funds totaling 12.5 million won.

For more detailed information regarding idea submissions, inquiries can be made through the Korea Women Inventors Association.

Jung Yeon-woo, Director of the Industrial Property Policy Bureau at the Korean Intellectual Property Office, stated, “Along with the expansion of women's social participation, the number of patent applications based on women's ideas has been increasing recently. Through Lifestyle Invention Korea, the Korean Intellectual Property Office will discover ideas that resolve inconveniences women experience in daily life and support these ideas to lead to practical commercialization.”