The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) plans to shift its policy paradigm to create an intellectual property (IP) ecosystem that generates economic value through patents. On the 26th, KIPO announced that it launched the ‘Intellectual Property Strategy Research Association’ (hereafter referred to as the Strategy Research Association) and held its ‘1st meeting’ at Samjung Hotel in Gangnam, Seoul.
The Strategy Research Association will begin its activities to discuss ways to shift the intellectual property policy paradigm to focus on high-quality patents. The association is chaired by Baik Man-Ki, chairman of the Korea Institute of Intellectual Property. It includes 15 members from companies, research institutions, academia, and the legal field.
In Korea, although the number of patent applications is large compared to the size of its economy, there is a lack of fundamental and core patents, resulting in a trade deficit in industrial property rights and insufficient economic value creation. The scientific and technological community emphasizes that patent performance evaluation should shift from quantity to quality.
The current intense tech supremacy competition between the US and China highlights the importance of high-quality patents. KIPO has been working on redirecting its IP policy to create an ecosystem that can yield economic benefits through high-quality patents. These are patents on innovative technologies that offer high economic value and are referred to as “money-making patents” with stable rights that are clear and valid to third parties.
Moving forward, the Strategy Research Association will identify major tasks across the entire IP ecosystem, including research and development, patent application, examination and trial, commercialization, export, and intellectual property rights protection. It will also gather input from innovation entities such as companies and research institutions, as well as experts.
KIPO plans to incorporate the tasks identified by the Strategy Research Association and the voices from the field to materialize the paradigm shift in IP policy. Participants in the meeting discussed strategies including enhancing research output quality through patent analysis-based R&D, improving the quality of patent applications from companies, research institutions, and the patent attorney industry, transforming innovative technologies into high-quality patents through examination innovation, improving the trial system to enhance patent stability, promoting commercialization and export to link high-quality patents to economic benefits, and establishing a protection foundation for proper recognition of IP value in court.
KIPO and the Strategy Research Association also plan to hold a ‘Intellectual Property Strategy Forum’ monthly from next month to gather on-site opinions from the private sector.
Wanki Kim, Commissioner of KIPO, stated, “The ultimate goal of the patent system is industrial innovation, and to achieve this, there is a need to entirely shift the intellectual property policy towards a qualitative focus. KIPO will concentrate its policy capabilities to create an IP ecosystem with abundant high-quality patents in cooperation with related ministries.”