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Title
Foreigners can easily read the Korean international patent publications (News Letter No. 229)

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KH

Post Date　
2011-12-02

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1. Foreigners can easily read the Korean international patent publications

- The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) provides a Korean to English machine translation service of Korean international patent publications

According to KIPO, from November 23, 2011 the Korean to English machine translation service to translate the international patent publications filed in Korean has been provided in the PATENT SCOPETM which is a patent search system of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

After the Korean language was adopted as one of official public languages of international patent applications in the WIPO general assembly in September 2007, the number of the international applications in Korean has increased. Thus, this service makes it possible for personnel of foreign Patent Offices and companies to easily understand the contents of the applications as filed in Korean through the machine translation. The number of the international patent applications filed with KIPO in 2010 was 9,639, and 76% of these applications, 7,336 applications, were filed in the Korean language.

KIPO provides this machine translation service to the WIPO search system which is widely used globally and provides the service, without cost, through KIPRIS* which is the nationwide Korean patent search system, for the Korean people’s convenience.

The *Korean Intellectual Property Rights Information Service is a nationwide patent information search service (www.kipris.or.kr) operated by KIPO.


2. Intellectual Property (IP) Right Trend during the third quarter of 2011

Trend of filing applications

The number of the IP applications filed during the third quarter of 2011 was 91,033, showing a 10.1% increase in comparison with the same period of 2010.

- By rights, the number of the patent applications increased by 8.5% and the number of the trademark applications increased by 21.4% but the number of the design applications decreased by 2.2%.

- By Korean and foreign applicants, the number of IP applications filed by Korean applicants increased by 10.0% and the number of applications filed by foreign applicants increased by 10.2%.

- The number of the patent applications filed by Korean applicants increased by 7.7% and the number of the patent applications filed by foreign applicants increased by 11.2%.

- By nations, the number of the applications filed by Chinese applicants increased by 73.2% and the number of the applications filed by Swedish applicants increased by 37.7%.

Trend of registration

The number of the IP registrations registered during the third quarter of 2011 was 54,413, showing a 32.8% increase in comparison with the same period of 2010.

- By rights, the number of registered patents increased by 34.9% and the number of trademarks increased by 42.4% but the number of designs decreased by 25.2%.

- By Korean and foreign applicants, the number of the IP registered by Korean applicants increased by 34.6% and the number of the IP registered by foreign applicants increased by 25.5%.

- By nations, the number of the IP registered by Swedish applicants increased by 17.9% and the number of the IP registered by Japanese applicants increased by 13.8%.


3. A plan will be prepared to intensify the examination of a design copying a famous character

As the number of the applications for designs copying famous characters has increased, KIPO announced that the standards for examination of a copy design application would be prepared.

As the number of cases of commercialization using characters of TV animations has increased, there have occurred cases to obtain unfair profits by riding on the reputation of the characters. For example, there are cases where some applications for doll designs copying some famous characters have been filed for registration. Furthermore, some design applications artfully modifying parts of the characteristics of the original characters were filed and registered as design rights.

According to KIPO, those copy applications drop the creation desire of a true design creator and therefore hinder the development of design industry. Thus, when anyone files an application for a design illegally copying a famous character, KIPO will reject such an application by more strictly applying the requirements for registration.


4. The exchange and cooperation in the Korea and China IP area will be fully expanded

- Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) between the Republic of Korea and China is open

The 17th commissioner’s meeting between KIPO and the State Intellectual Property Office of the People’s Republic of China (SIPO) was held in Beijing, China on November 2. In the meeting, KIPO concluded a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Mr. Tian Lipu, the Commissioner of SIPO. In the MOU, KIPO and SIPO agreed to operate the PPH and PCT-PPH between Korea and China.

Expansion of the cooperation between KIPO and SIPO

In the commissioner’s meeting, KIPO and SIPO decided to continue to seek for the harmonization of the IP systems of the two countries by continuously operating expert consultative groups by fields such as patent examination, information, education, design and etc. Both also agreed to expand and strengthen the exchange and cooperation between the two countries by mutually sending IP experts and the like.

IPO and SIPO especially agreed to carry forward the joint research between the private research institutes of the two countries, to promote the ‘private cooperation for national intellectual property strategies’ agreed in the Korea-China summit talk in May 2010, so that the national intellectual property strategies can be efficiently established and operated. 　

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KIPO has published an analysis collection of IP patent precedents of the Supreme Court (News Letter No. 230)

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The KIPO budget for 2012, 405.4 billion Korea Won, is an increase of 11.6% (News Letter No. 228)