Busan City Hosts 'Korea-Japan-China Patent Office Heads Meeting' ... First In-Person Meeting in 4 Years

Busan City will hold the ‘Korea-Japan-China Patent Office Heads Meeting’ for two days from November 30 to December 1 at Signiel Busan in Haeundae-gu.

The ‘Korea-Japan-China Patent Office Heads Meeting’ has been hosted annually by the patent offices of Korea, Japan, and China. Last year, it was hosted by the Japan Patent Office and held as a virtual meeting, while this year it will be hosted by the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO).

This meeting will be held face-to-face for the first time in four years since COVID-19, with more than 100 participants including the heads of the patent offices of Korea, Japan, and China, the secretaries-general of the trilateral cooperation secretariats, country-specific working-level officials, businesspeople, and experts.

During the meeting, the ‘User Symposium’ will be held to introduce intellectual property information and policies from each country, and provide time for businesspeople and experts to discuss intellectual property issues.

The symposium will be held under the theme ‘the role of Intellectual Property for innovative SMEs.’

Various intellectual property policies of the three patent offices aimed at promoting innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises will be introduced, and representatives from financial institutions of the three countries engaged in intellectual property finance will explain funding methods for innovative SMEs using intellectual property on site.

Busan City Hall.

Lee In-sil, Commissioner of the Korean Intellectual Property Office, explained, “The share of patent applications filed worldwide by Korea, Japan, and China increased from 42% in 2001, when the trilateral patent office heads meeting first began, to 62% in 2021, showing the growing importance of these three countries in the field of intellectual property.”

He added, “We will do our best to ensure that this meeting, held face-to-face in Korea for the first time in four years since COVID-19, becomes an opportunity for cooperation in the field of intellectual property among the three countries to make a great leap not only quantitatively but also qualitatively.”

Park Hyung-joon, Mayor of Busan, said, “In the era of global unlimited competition, Busan City will continue to transform the economic structure of Busan into a knowledge-based industry to achieve sustainable development and enable Busan’s companies to secure global competitiveness and create high added value.”

Busan City plans to continue activities to attract international conferences related to knowledge-based industries in cooperation with related organizations and groups to foster knowledge-based industries, raise awareness, and revitalize the local economy. Last October, the city hosted the Asian Patent Attorneys Association meeting, which was attended by more than 1,600 participants from 30 countries.