1. KIPO held an online presentation on a PCT international application.
-The presentation presented an explanation of the international patent application system (PCT) including questions and answers thereon.
On June 21, 2023, KIPO held an online presentation on the international patent application system for the public interested in an international patent application, workers in the patent agent services and company staff in charge of IP right, etc.
The number of international patent applications (PCT) filed by Korean applicants in 2022 was 4th in the world, hitting an all-time high. In line with this, the explanation was focusing on the international patent application (PCT) area and the comprehensive guidance was given as to the relevant systems and cases, to provide information to be substantially helpful to those preparing to file an international application.
As a part of the positive administration, the online presentation provided an opportunity of two-way communication with the presenters .
The details were available in the KIPO website (www.kipo.go.kr) and the inquiry by phone was available at KIPO (042-481-5209).
2. KIPO and the Korea Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (KMFDS) join hands for drug approval and IP protection.
-KIPO and KMFDS signed a renewal of business agreement in the approval and IP area.
-The two continue business cooperation, such as, the sharing of the approval and patent information, the cooperation in the program to support a pharmaceutical company, etc.
-The two add the business cooperation, such as the exchange of the information on extending a patent period, the convention automatic extension, etc.
On June 16, 2023, KIPO and KMFDS signed the renewal of the business agreement to support the development of the Korean pharmaceutical industry and to strengthen the mutual cooperation in the drug approval and IP area.
The two signed the first business agreement in 2014 and have mutually cooperated for the development of the Korean drug approval-patent linkage system by ♦ improving the drug approval-patent linkage system and the business cooperation thereof, ♦ sharing the drug approval and patent information, and ♦ cooperating in the program to support a pharmaceutical company, etc.
Based on past business cooperation, there were results of 1) prioritizing a trial case of a patent registered on the patent list, and 2) improving the KIPO system to support the relevant industry by providing the drug safety country of KMFDS with the patent and trial information connected with the Korea Intellectual Property Rights Information Service (KIPRIS), and the information providing system, etc.
The regulations for handling judgement affairs (instructions from KIPO) were revised on March 2015, to expedite the drug approval-patent linkage-related trials.
Specifically, in this renewal of the business agreement, the agreement fulfilment has been strengthened by adding the content, such as ♦ the exchange of the drug-related patent period extension information, ♦ the policy advisory of the drug approval and IP area, and ♦ the matters relating to an automatic extension of the agreement, etc.
KIPO and KMFDS will regularly hold a council to faithfully fulfill the content of the business agreement and continue a positive cooperation in strengthening the capability to respond to the international regulations in the drug area and supporting the development of the Korean pharmaceutical industry.
3. A midterm meeting of ID5 was held in Jeju, South Korea.
-The major issues in the design area were discussed, such as the utilization status of the new technology, such as AI, etc. and the design protection in virtual space, etc.
From June 12 to 14, 2023, KIPO held the ID5 midterm meeting in Lotte Hotel Jeju, to discuss the major issues in the design area.
After 5 years since 2018, South Korea assumed the presidency of ID5 in 2023 and as a leading country in the design area, South Korea has taken a leading role in discussing the international design norms.
In this meeting, the progress of the twelve (12) cooperative tasks were reviewed, including the sharing of the utilization status of the design-related new technology (such as AI, a 3D file application, etc.) and the design protection in the virtual space (metaverse), etc. In addition, taking the opportunity that China joined the Hague international design application system in May of 2022, an opinion to seek a plan to improve the examination consistency of an international design among the countries was proposed.
4. South Korea leads a 5-generation (5G)-based communication connected car!
-The rate of increase in the number of applications for a communication connected car (‘connected car’), which were filed by Korean applicants, was 2nd in the world.
-In the number of the applications for a 5G-based communication connected car, LG and Samsung were 1st and 2nd in the world.
Ahead of the era of autonomous driving, the communication connected car technology has been noticed. The connected car is expected to enable the traffic flow of an organically connected vehicle(s) and the efficient driving by communicating with the surroundings. Recently, combining with the 5G technology which is capable of a rapid response, the connected car is considered as greatly increasing the safety of autonomous driving.
The market size of a connected car has grown from 28.5 billion dollars in 2022, by 18.4% a year, to be expected to reach 153.5 billion dollars in 2032. Accordingly, the technology development to preoccupy the connected car market has been active.
* EMERGENRESEARCH, “Connected Car Market”, January 2023
While the number of the applications for a connected car greatly increased throughout the world by an annual average of 16.4% over the last 10 years (2011~2020), South Korea increased by an annual average of 25.5%, rapidly growing as the world’s 2nd.
KIPO analyzed the worldwide patent applications filed in IP5 (South Korea, US, China, EU and Japan). As a result, the number of the relevant applications increased from 2,077 in 2011 to 8,116 in 2020, with an annual average of 16.4% over the 10 years.
By nationality of an applicant, 1st was China with 34.7% (19,103 applications), followed by 2nd US with 23.3% (12,831), 3rd Japan with 20.8% (11,456), 4th South Korea with 8.6% (4,731).
As to an annual average increase rate, China was the highest (31.4%), South Korea is 2nd (25.5%). Japan (9.2%) and US (8.5%) showed a lower increase rate than an average (16.4%).
The connected car technology is divided into the technology relating to a service provided by a connected car and the communication technology which is a method that a connected car communicates with the surrounding objects. In the service area, China filed the most applications with 36.8%, and in the communication area, US was 1st with 41.0%, showing a difference by the technical area.
As the major applicants, 1st was Toyota (5.8%, 3,207 applications), 2nd was Hyundai Motor (3.2%, 1,757), 3rd was Honda (2.6%, 1,450), 4th was Ford (2.6%, 1,404). The world car companies appear to lead the communication connected car technology.
Besides 2nd, Hyundai Motor, the Korean applicants included 6th LG (1.8%, 991), 11th Samsung (1.2%, 646) and 33rd Mando (0.4%, 200) which were listed as the applicants who filed many applications.
Notably, the Korean companies were considered as having competitiveness in the 5G-V2X (Vehicle to Everything) technology, among the communication technology, in which a car communicates with the surrounding objects by 5G. In the number of the applications in this area, LG (18.5%, 286 applications) and Samsung (18.1%, 279) were 1st and 2nd, respectively.
5. South Korea’s growth rate was 2nd in the number of patent applications for the stem cell technology.
-While US has leaded, China and South Korea have chased so that a change is detected in the competition.
-South Korea’s annual average increase was 10.7% to be in a 2nd place following China, and US’ and Japan’s growth slowed down.
Each country has continued to be interested in the technology of a stem cell which is capable of differentiating into any cells. This is since the usability and effects of a stem cell are expected to raise the modern treatment technology to the next level. The world market size in the stem cell area has grown by an annual average of 9.74%, expecting* to reach about 31.6 billion dollars in 2030.
*“Stem Cells Market Size”, GrandviewResearch, October 2022
Aiming to produce artificial blood for blood transfusion by differentiating stem cells, the Korean government also formed a ‘project group to develop the cell-based artificial blood technology’ and has positively come forward to at first, secure the stem cell-related technology, such as by supporting 47.1 billion Korea Won for 5 years starting this year.
While the effort of each country has continued to develop the stem cell technology, South Korea’s annual average increase was recorded as 2nd to steadily grow.
KIPO analyzed the patent applications filed with IP5 (South Korea, US, China, EU and Japan). As a result, the number of the applications in the stem cell area increased by an annual average of 4.6% over the 10 years (2011~2020) and specifically, the number of the relevant applications filed in 2020 increased by about 50% compared to 2011 (from 826 to 1, 241).
By nationality of an applicant, US filed the most applications over the last 10 years (2011~2020), taking a 1st place (38.5%, 4,221 applications), followed by China 2nd (15.0%, 1,639), South Korea 3rd (12.7%, 1,394), and Japan 4th (11.4%, 1,246).
As to an annual average increase rate during the same period, China was the highest (32.6%), South Korea was 2nd (10.7%). US (0.7%) showed a slowing rate and Japan (2.3%) showed a decrease.
Notably, South Korea’s application number increased as of 2019 by 1.5 times (from 141 in 2018 to 205 in 2019). Enacting the ‘Advanced Regenerative Bio Act’ in 2019 to support the commercialization of the stem cell therapeutics was considered as the factor of the increase in the number of the applications.
As the major applicants, 1st was Anthrogenesis (US) and University of California (US) filing the most applications (each 1.7%, 188 applications), followed by 3rd Janssen (Belgium) (1.7%, 182), 4th Harvard University (US) (1.4%, 148), and 5th Fujifilm (Japan) (1.3%, 138). The US companies and universities are considered to lead the research in this area.
The Korean applicants included 12th Seoul National University (0.9%, 94), 17th Samsung (0.7%, 72), 21st CHA University (0.6%, 64), 22nd the Catholic University of Korea (0.6%, 63), 29th Korea University and bBHC (each 0.5%, 50), which were listed in the top 30 applicants who filed many applications.
Although 53% of the applications in this area were filed by companies, the percentage of the applications filed by universities (29.8%) and public (10.3%) were high. Especially, in the case of Korean applicants, companies (43.8%) and universities (43.5%) filed similar numbers of the relevant applications.
The patent analysis data of the stem cell area are available to anyone, at request, in the patent bigdata center (biz.kista.re.kr/pbcenter).
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