1. An ID5’s workshop of comparing the examination results of international design applications was held at KIPO’s suggestion.
- The international design application system harmonization and examination quality improvement are expected by sharing the international design application examination processes and results.
According to KIPO, ID5 (USPTO, JPO, CNIPA, EU and JPO) held a workshop of comparing the examination results of international design applications in JPO (Tokyo, Japan) from April 25~26, 2024.
This workshop which KIPO suggested held was for the first time as a new cooperation task in the ID5 annual meeting in Korea in September, 2023. This workshop was held for two days following the ID5 midterm meeting held on April 24, 2024 in Tokyo, Japan. The workshop was jointly led by KIPO and USPTO.
In this special workshop, the 5 countries to lead the formation of international regulations in the design area discussed the current status and issues of the operation of international design application system in each country and sought future development directions.
On the first day of the workshop, the examination standards applied to the examination of an international design application and the work practices thereof were presented by each of ID5.
On the second day, an opportunity was prepared to compare and analyze the examination processes of each ID5 regarding an internation design application having different reasons for rejection or results of examination, among the international design applications which were filed in common with ID5.
In the workshop, not only the ID5 international design-related people but also a WIPO director of international design applications participated. The content and results of the workshop are considered as having influence on the international design application system to be developed to be more user-friendly.
2. Global semiconductor companies continue to request for KIPO’s PCT international searches.
- In 2023, South Korea was 4th in ranking the number of PCT international search cases and Europe was 1st.
- Among the number of the PCT internation search request cases received in South Korea in 2023, about ¼ were requested by US companies.
- Among the top 5 in the number of PCT international search cases as received, 3 were global semiconductor companies.
Before global semiconductor companies secure a new technology as a patent in each country of the world, they continue to entrust South Korea with PCT international search cases to review whether the new technology is patentable.
According to KIPO, in 2023 South Korea received 30,023 cases of international search for PCT applications from Korean and foreign applicants. This number took a 4th place in ranking the number of PCT international search cases in the world, following Europe (83,125), China (72,923) and Japan (47,342). US (22,919) was 5th following South Korea.
Among the cases of PCT international search received in South Korea in 2023, 73.8% (22,164 cases) were requested by domestic applicants, and the 3 companies including Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, and LG Energy Solution occupied about 35% thereof.
By technology field, digital communications were 2,620 cases, batteries (electrical machinery and energy) were 2,498, computers were 1,929, medical technologies were 1,560, audio and video technologies were 1,094.
24% (7,155 cases), which was about ¼ of the number of the cases of PCT international search received in South Korea during the same period, were requested by US. This number corresponded to 14% of a total of cases PCT international search requested by US.
By technical field, computers were 813 cases, semiconductors were 811, civil engineering was 704, batteries (electrical machinery and energy) was 584, and measurements were 475.
By major company, the top 5 companies included Applied Materials (AMAT), Intel, Lam Research, showing that these three companies were global semiconductor companies. Applied Materials (AMAT), which took a 1st place for the past few years, requested KIPO to conduct PCT international search regarding most of the PCT applications filed with USPTO (an average of 99.6% over the last 5 years). Intel (90.9%) and Lam Research (99.9%) also showed the same trends.
Unlike China, Japan and US, South Korea and Europe received a considerable number of PCT international search from foreign countries as well as domestic applicants. This is considered since KIPO and EPO have relatively high competitiveness in search quality and search fees, etc. Notably, KIPO is considered as being recognized for its competitiveness in PCT international search in the cutting-edge industry areas, such as semiconductors, etc., from US global companies.
3. South Korea for the first time entered the top 5 countries in the number of European patent applications.
- The number of European patent applications filed by Korean applicants in 2023 was over 12,000, recording the highest number of the applications ever, and the increase rate compared to 2022 was 1st.
- In the top 10, Samsung (2nd) and LG (3rd) were included. Samsung recorded the 1st place in the increase rate in the number of the applications.
- As for the patent applications in the battery field, Korean companies took the lead including LG (1st), Samsung (3rd) and SK (5th).
According to KIPO, the ‘Patent Index 2023’ which was recently published by European Patent Office (EPO), among the countries which filed the applications with EPO, South Korea was included in the top 5 countries for the first time ever.
The number of the patent applications filed with EPO by Korean applicants recorded the highest ever at 12,575, and the rate of increase compared to the previous year was 21%, achieving first place. For reference, the number of patent applications filed with EPO by Korean applicants increased from 9,421 in 2021, 10,389 in 2021 to 12,575 in 2022.
The top 10 companies include 2 South Korea companies, 2 US companies and 2 German companies, 1 Japanese company, 1 Chinese company, 1 Swedish company and 1 Netherlands company. Huawei, a Chinese company, took a 1st place, followed by Samsung, LG, and Qualcomm. Notably, Samsung filed 4,760 applications, which was an increase of 58.9% compared to the previous year. Among the top 10 companies, Samsung took a 1st place in terms of the rate of increase in the number of the applications.
By detailed technology, South Korea took a 2nd place in the electrical machinery, device, energy and semiconductor fields, showing superiority over the other countries in the same fields which has been noticed as an important technology that determines national competitiveness. Especially, in the semiconductor field, the competition among South Korea, US and China has been fierce to dominate core technologies.
KIPO has made efforts to provide a rapid and high-quality patent examination service in the semiconductor and secondary battery fields. In the semiconductor field, KIPO has fully carried forward the policies, such as the semiconductor preferential examination and the semiconductor patent examiner hiring (67 examiners), etc. In the secondary battery field, since KIPO has been in the process of hiring 38 private experts, it is expected that it would be more effective for Korean companies to rapidly secure rights.
4. The efficiency of national R&D is enhanced by an analysis of patent achievements.
- KIPO held an advisory committee of government R&D patent achievements.
- Expert’s opinion is collected to analyze, manage and utilize the government R&D patent achievements.
Experts gathered to increase the efficiency of R&D by analyzing, managing and utilizing patent achievements created by national R&D.
KIPO announced to hold an advisory committee of government R&D patent achievements’ (hereinafter, referred to as a ‘committee’).
In October 2023, the committee was launched to discuss a plan for the advancement of analysis of the patent achievements created by national R&D to efficiently manage and utilize them. As the members of the committee, at present 10 experts participated and they are active in the various fields of the R&D spot, such as a person in charge of R&D, professor, a person in charge of technology commercialization in university and public institutes (technology licensing office TLO), etc.
In this meeting, KIPO proposed a ‘plan to analyze the patent achievements of major government R&D project’ and a ‘plan to improve the researcher-customized qualitative evaluation metrics, and the committee members suggested their opinions on these matters and their various ideas on the directions to utilize the patent achievements.
The director of the Industrial Property Policy Bureau of KIPO said, “to improve the efficiency of the national R&D and to create excellent patent achievements, it is essential to systematically search and analyze the previous achievements… and KIPO will do its best such that the opinions from the committee can be reflected in the policy.
5. Opinions that the crime of leaking a trade secret should be strictly controlled and the punishment against the crime should be increased by two times.
- KIPO published the 2023 survey results of IP protection.
- The demand for strengthening criminal punishment on a crime of leaking a trade secret increased from 27.1% in 2022 to 46.4% in 2023.
- To prevent idea stealing, a corrective order system is the most effective, 33.9%.
- Since the number of online fake products have increased, the demand for support in controlling fake products rapidly increased by more than 10 times.
One of two companies holding a trade secret responded that a criminal punishment against a crime of leaking a trade secret should be strengthened.
KIPO published the results of the 2023 IP protection survey including the above.
To use as basic information and to establish a policy relating to unfair competition prevention and trade secret protection, this survey has been taken every year since 2021. This survey was taken by nationwide companies having 10 or more employees from comprehensive views of the recognition and current status of trade secret protection, unfair competition act, and trademark protection.
As the demand for a policy to prevent and respond to secret trade infringement and leakage, the highest, 46.4%, responded that criminal punishment measures against a crime of leaking a trade secret should be strengthened. This number increased by about 2 times from 27.1% as the relevant survey result in 2022.
This increase in demand is considered as resulting from the lax punishment against a crime of a technology leakage which have continued to be a problem and from the influence of continuously occurring technology leaking cases and accidents.
As the activities performed for trade secret protection, the most activity was ‘to write a periodic trade secret protection pledge as to an insider’ (37.4%), followed by the activities ‘to conclude an agreement to keep a trade secret as to an outsider’ (7.3%), and ‘to impose an obligation to prohibit job change to a competitor company and an non-competition obligation’ (5.2%).
The types of unfair competition acts as recognized were the ‘false indication of an origin’ (92.9%), followed by ‘idea stealing’ (90.4%), ‘imitation of the form of a product’ (84.9%), and ‘act of stealing someone else’s achievements’ (83.9%).
As measures to improve unfair competition acts, the 1st measure was ‘to strengthen an administrative investigation right (corrective order system, etc.)’ (33.9%), followed by the measures ‘to prepare a system for proving the original of an idea’ (25.9%), and ‘to prepare the procedures to utilize administrative investigation materials upon civil litigation’ (14.6%).
Among KIPO’s support projects for trademark protection, the intention to use ‘a support project to control domestic counterfeit products’ was the highest (50.2%), and ‘a support project to control overseas online counterfeit products’ was also high (35.2%). Each of these numbers showed a rapid increase by more than 10 times, from 5.1% and 2.6%, respectively, which were survey results in the previous year.
These are considered as resulting from the rapid increase in online distribution of counterfeit products, such as overseas direct purchase, etc., and the influence of causing huge economic damages.
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