51 New Patent Examiners Appointed in Bio, Advanced Robotics, and Artificial Intelligence Fields

On the 3rd, the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) announced that it has newly appointed 51 individuals who have passed the final selection for patent examiners in the fields of bio, advanced robotics, and artificial intelligence (AI) as specialized term patent examiners (equivalent to Grade 5).

The number of appointees by field is 35 in bio, 13 in advanced robotics, and 3 in AI. These appointees will undergo new examiner training (from the 3rd to the 21st) and new public official training (from the 24th to the 28th), after which they will be assigned to dedicated examination departments by technical field to perform patent examination duties.

Previously, KIPO has been hiring private experts in national strategic technology fields as patent examiners to secure technological sovereignty through intellectual property and to restore economic dynamism. From 2023 to last year, 67 private experts were hired as specialized term examiners in the semiconductor field, and 38 private experts were hired last year in the secondary battery field.

This year, private experts were also hired as specialized term examiners in the bio, advanced robotics, and AI fields. These fields are characterized by the fastest changes even in industrial sites, and KIPO expects that recruiting private experts will enhance the efficiency of examinations such as patents.

The educational background of the newly appointed specialized term patent examiners consists of 38 PhDs (74.5%), 3 Masters (13.7%), and 6 Bachelors (11.8%). This is 8.5 percentage points higher than the current proportion of Masters and PhDs among specialized term examiners at KIPO (79.8%), indicating that a large number of highly specialized and excellent technical personnel have been secured, according to KIPO.

Earlier this year, KIPO announced a plan to expand the “Patent Examination Package Support System,” which covers examination personnel, dedicated organizations, and priority examination, as a strategy to promote technology innovation based on intellectual property.

To this end, starting from the 19th of this month, KIPO plans to include these fields in the priority examination targets to support companies in securing patent rights promptly. Prior to this, KIPO included national strategic technology fields such as semiconductors (November 2022), displays (November 2023), and secondary batteries (February last year) in the priority examination targets.

Kim Wanki, Commissioner of KIPO, stated, “We will do our best to actively utilize the expertise and capabilities of private experts to provide fast, accurate, and high-quality patent examination services in the national strategic technology fields of bio, advanced robotics, and AI.”