Patent Office "Rapid Growth of Digital Healthcare... Establishing Practical Examination Guidelines"

The digital healthcare sector is experiencing rapid growth. As the market size expands, the emergence of new technologies and securing of rights are also progressing swiftly. The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) plans to prepare examination practice guidelines to respond to changes in the market situation.

According to KIPO on the 18th, the number of domestic applications related to digital healthcare increased from 2,785 in 2015 to 7,141 last year. The global market size is also expected to grow from $174 billion in 2019 to $657 billion next year.

Digital healthcare technology has the characteristics of a convergence technology combining digital engineering and pharmaceutical technology. Recently, new technologies integrating IT have emerged and continue to develop.

In the market, there has been a demand for the establishment of new examination practice guidelines tailored to these changes. Accordingly, KIPO listened to opinions from related industries in advance, analyzed examination practice guidelines in adjacent fields such as computers, foreign examination cases, and Patent Court precedents, and prepared a case-centered draft for examination practice guidelines.

Also on the 18th, KIPO held an on-site communication meeting with industry-academia-research stakeholders in the digital healthcare field at the Seoul office to share the draft examination practice guidelines for digital healthcare technology and collect field opinions.

So far, in the market, there have been many opinions that the effectiveness aspect is important in the patent requirement judgment process due to the characteristics of the healthcare industry, and that there are difficulties in drafting patent specifications and setting the scope of rights.

The examination practice guidelines will be produced in a case-centered manner, reflecting the opinions of the healthcare industry and the field opinions collected at the meeting.

Son Chang-ho, head of the Bio Healthcare Examination Division at KIPO, said, “Once the examination practice guidelines are finalized, they will be disseminated to the related industries to support growth momentum,” and added, “We hope that the preparation of the guidelines will help applicants increase the predictability of examination results and seek appropriate response measures.”