KIPO: "Creating Economic Value through Patents... Policy Paradigm Shift"

The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) plans to change its policy paradigm to create an intellectual property (IP) ecosystem that generates economic value through patents.

On the 26th, KIPO announced that the ‘Intellectual Property Strategy Research Group (hereinafter referred to as the Strategy Research Group)’ held its inaugural ceremony and the ‘1st Meeting’ at Samjung Hotel in Gangnam-gu, Seoul.

The Strategy Research Group will begin activities from this day to discuss ways to shift the IP policy paradigm through premium patents. The chairman is Baek Manki, chairman of the Korea Intellectual Property Research Institute, and 15 members from companies, research institutions, academia, and the legal sector participate as members.

Provided by the Korean Intellectual Property Office

Korea has many patent applications relative to its economic size, but due to a lack of foundational and core patents, it continues to run a deficit in the industrial property trade balance, resulting in insufficient economic value creation. The science and technology community voices the need to strengthen patent performance evaluation from focusing on ‘quantity’ to ‘quality.’

In particular, the recent intense technological hegemony competition between the United States and China highlights the importance of high-quality patents.

KIPO has been working to shift the direction of IP policy to create an ecosystem where economic benefits can be generated through premium patents. Premium patents refer to so-called ‘money-making patents’ that allow exclusive rights to innovative technologies with high economic value and are valid and clear to third parties, ensuring high rights stability.

Going forward, the Strategy Research Group will identify key tasks across the entire IP ecosystem, including research and development, patent application, examination, trial, transactions, commercialization, export, and IP protection, and will play a role in broadly collecting opinions from innovation actors such as companies and research institutions as well as experts.

KIPO plans to concretize the paradigm shift in IP policy by reflecting the tasks derived through the Strategy Research Group and voices from the field.

At the meeting, the Strategy Research Group members discussed promotion strategies such as ▲ improving the quality of research outcomes through patent analysis-based research and development ▲ enhancing the quality of patent applications from companies, research institutions, and the patent attorney industry ▲ examination innovation to create premium patents from innovative technologies ▲ improving the trial system to increase patent stability ▲ promoting commercialization and export to connect premium patents to economic benefits ▲ establishing a protection foundation to properly recognize IP value in courts.

KIPO and the Strategy Research Group also plan to hold the ‘Intellectual Property Strategy Forum’ monthly starting next month to gather opinions from the private sector on the ground.

Kim Wanki, Commissioner of KIPO, said, “The ultimate goal of the patent system is industrial innovation, and to achieve this, it is necessary to fully shift IP policy to be quality-centered. KIPO will focus its policy capabilities to ensure that many premium patents are created throughout the IP ecosystem in cooperation with related ministries.”