KIPO to Support Establishment of Patent Office in Timor-Leste

The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) will support the establishment of a patent office in Timor-Leste.

On June 17, KIPO announced that it will provide training on the establishment and operation of a patent office for the "Patent Office Establishment Preparation Team" from the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Timor-Leste, at the International Intellectual Property Training Institute in Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, from June 17 to June 20.

Timor-Leste recently began preparations to establish its own patent office and requested support from Korea and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). In response, KIPO and WIPO decided to share their experience and know-how necessary for establishing a patent office in Timor-Leste, utilizing the WIPO Korea Funds-in-Trust.

This project is significant as it marks the first time the WIPO Korea Funds-in-Trust is being used to support a foreign patent office. Since its establishment in 2004, the WIPO Korea Funds-in-Trust has provided approximately 19 billion KRW, supporting intellectual property capacity-building projects for youth, women, and small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as consulting on intellectual property policies for developing countries.

During the training, KIPO plans to share its accumulated experience and know-how in areas such as: ▲ establishing the vision and strategy of a patent office ▲ building infrastructure including organization, personnel, and legal systems ▲ filing, examination, and registration of patents, trademarks, and designs. In addition, starting with this training, KIPO will continue to provide follow-up consulting, including establishing a roadmap for the creation of the Timor-Leste patent office and training examiners.

In particular, KIPO intends to use this project as a stepping stone to spread Korea's advanced intellectual property model to regions such as ASEAN and the Middle East. ASEAN is Korea's third-largest trading partner as of 2024, and recently, the distribution of counterfeit K-brand products in the region has been increasing.

Accordingly, KIPO plans to strengthen cooperation with ASEAN countries at the "8th Korea-ASEAN Heads Meeting" to be held in Korea in September this year, and to actively promote the spread of Korea's advanced intellectual property system so that domestic companies operating locally can effectively utilize and protect their intellectual property rights.

KIPO Commissioner Kim Wanki stated, "Supporting the establishment of the Timor-Leste patent office will be a great opportunity to spread Korea's advanced intellectual property system to ASEAN and other regions," adding, "KIPO will continue to do its utmost through active bilateral and multilateral cooperation to help domestic companies operating overseas work in a more favorable intellectual property environment."