|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
HOME > Resources >
Newsletters |
|
|
| |
|
|
Title |
|
IPO launched a ‘semiconductor IP council’ to strengthen the competitiveness of patents in the semiconductor industry.(News Letter No. 548) |
|
|
Author |
|
KH |
|
Post Date |
|
2025-03-17 |
|
|
Read |
|
181 |
|
Attach File |
|
- |
|
1. KIPO launched a ‘semiconductor IP council’ to strengthen the competitiveness of patents in the semiconductor industry.
KIPO announced the launch of the ‘semiconductor IP council’ comprised of companies, associations and professionals in the semiconductor field, to enhance the competitiveness of patents in the semiconductor field.
A total of 16 companies and agencies including 9 semiconductor companies, such as SK Hynix Inc., etc., and Korea Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute attended the council. The meeting was to introduce KIPO’s semiconductor examination strategies to provide rapid examination service, to create high-quality patents and to strengthen external cooperation and communication and to listen to the semiconductor companies’ opinions thereon.
In the future, the semiconductor IP council will discuss mutual cooperation plans among industries, universities and research institutes, such as establishment of unified patentability criteria and sharing of analysis results of patent trends in the semiconductor field.
The head of the semiconductor examination bureau of KIPO said, “we will help such that semiconductor companies worry less about intellectual property rights and can stably run the business…We will activate communications with the companies through the semiconductor IP council and derive IP policy in the semiconductor field so that they can be protected from technology leaks or disputes, such as patent and trade secret infringement trials, etc. We will also make every effort in order for the semiconductor companies to rapidly enter new business regions.”
2. Partial revision of the enforcement regulation of the Korean Design Act has been implemented from February 12, 2025.
- The enforcement regulation of the Design Act has been revised such that only the true creator can be described.
- The system to correct a creator has been improved and the national research and development (R&D) form has been improved.
According to KIPO, the partial revision of the enforcement regulation of the Korea Design Act has been implemented from February 12, 2025.
This revision includes major content, such as ▲ the improvement of the system to correct a creator to describe only the true creator, and ▲ the improvement of the form to describe national R&D results.
The creator correction system has been improved to prevent the unfair addition of a non-creator as the creator after an examiner’s examination procedure has been completed. To describe only the true creator, ① the correction of a creator is partially limited when the examination has been completed, and ② proof document(s) previously required only after registration of establishment of a design right needs to be submitted even during an examiner’s examination procedure.
① An applicant of a design application cannot add a creator after the decision of registration to the registration of establishment of a design right, and the creator can be corrected only if the identity of the creator is maintained, such as a creator’s name change, simple typographical error, address change, etc. (An additional correction to a creator is possible from the filing of a design application to the decision to register a design right and after the registration of establishment of the design right.)
② If a creator is to be corrected during the examination procedure, it is necessary to submit (i) an explanation describing the reasons for correction and (ii) a verification document signed or stamped by the applicant of the design application and the creator to be corrected.
This revised regulation is applied to the documents for creator correction summitted after February 12, 2025.
In this revision, the information to be described in relation to national R&D design performance management has been reorganized and a precaution has been added, thereby increasing the efficiency of the national R&D design performance management.
3. KIPO recruits participating organizations for trade secret and technology protection consultation.
- Apply for company-customized trade secret and technology protection consultation.
- Consultations are integratedly announced in the 4 fields including IP protection strategical consultation of industrially important technology, etc.
KIPO announced the recruitment, from February 24 to March 10, small and medium companies, middle market companies, universities, public research institutes to participate in the ‘1st round of recruitment for trade secret and technology protection consultation in 2025’.
According to KIPO’s 2023 IP protection inspection, since only 11.4% of the companies holding trade secrets have a dedicated department or personnel in charge of secret management, it is very important to make efforts to improve Korean companies’ technology protection capabilities.
To support the strengthening of technology protection capabilities of Korean industries, universities and research institutes, 4 consultations have been integratedly announced according to the characteristics of their own technology and trade secret, such as ① consultation for protection strategy of intellectual property convergence (IP-MIX) technology, ② basic consultation for trade secret management system, ③ in-depth consultation for trade secret management system, and ④ consultation for IP protection strategy of industrially important technology.
① Consultation for protection strategy of intellectual property convergence (IP-MIX) technology: For 1~2 days, the technology protection experts, such as patent attorneys and lawyers, etc., understand the technologies and requirements which industries, universities and research institutes hold, to provide IP utilization strategies, such as patent and trade secret customized for each institute.
② Basic consultation for trade secret management system: for 1 day, a trade secret expert checks the current situation of trade secret management of industry-academia-research institute and discerns any problem, to present a feasible trade secret management plan at the relevant institute level.
③ In-depth consultation for trade secret management system: for 3~4 days, a trade secret expert directly participates in the practical process to improve an institute’s trade secret management system, to support the introduction and improvement of the institutional, human and material management systems according to the conditions of each institute.
④ Consultation for IP protection strategy of industrially important technology: for 3 days, a trade secret expert present an IP and trade secret protection strategies through patent analysis in the relevant industrial and technological fields and supports the establishment of IP protection system customized for each institute.
Those eligible to apply for the 1st round of recruitment for trade secret and technology protection consultation are small and medium companies, middle market companies, universities, public research institutes. However, middle market companies are excluded from those eligible to apply for the basic consultation.
As to the consultation for industrially important technology, parts of technologies and patents owned by industries, universities and research institutes correspond to the national strategic technology (12 fields including semiconductor, display, secondary battery, etc.) and the national core technology (13 fields including electrical and electronic, machinery and bio technologies, etc.), support is available.
Major content
Consultation for IP-MIX Depending on the characteristics of the technology owned by an institute, effective utilization strategies of IP system, such as patent, trade secret, etc., are presented. [1~2 days, one expert (such as patent attorney or lawyer) visit]
Basic consultation A feasible management plan for each institute is presented by checking the institute’s trade secret management system and discerning any problem.
[1 day, one expert (such as patent attorney or lawyer) visit]
In-depth consultation In-depth advice on institutional, human and material trade secret management plan according to an institute’s features (size, management environments, etc.) is provided.
[3~4 days, two experts (such as patent attorney and/or lawyer) visit]
Consultation for Industrially important technology Through a patent analysis in the same industry, IP protection strategies in the technology field are presented, and an institute’s own technology is analyzed and trade secret management system is checked.
[3 days, two experts (such as patent attorney and/or lawyer) visit]
4. KIPO recruits companies to participate in a project to support the innovation of products with patents.
- KIPO helps product innovation of small and medium companies and middle market companies by utilizing IP information.
- KIPO supports small and medium companies and middle market companies in commercializing their intellectual properties by utilizing patent bigdata.
KIPO recruits companies to participate in the project to support the innovation of products with patents in 2025 (formerly, IP-C&D strategic support project) from February 26 to March 19, 2025.
The ‘project to support the innovation of products with patents’ is to solve problems which arise during a company’s IP commercialization process by connecting the internal and external patent information, to support the development of an innovative product. A small or medium company or middle market company which owns one or more patent, utility model or design is able to apply. KIPO plans to select a total of 56 companies this year.
A company can receive a consultation for IP-based innovative product development worth up to 80 million Korea Won, such as ‘new product planning’, ‘product advancement’, etc. by commercialization step and it can receive support from prototype production for the result to investment and pioneering sales channels.
Notably, this year a new intensive support track is established, so that an excellent company will be selected and a customized support tailored to each company’s needs will be provided. The intensive support tract selects ① beneficiary companies of the IP-R&D support program, ② companies owning advanced technology patents, and ③ companies requiring prototype test certification.
In 2024, through the same project, ParkingGo developed AI-based parking control software to hardware and launched it, achieving sales of over 100 million Korea Won. ParkingGo also concluded MOU with state-owned enterprises of 3 countries including Indonesia, etc. Joneplus applied an air quality management technology to water quality management, thereby developing an eco-friendly cooling water quality management device to achieve sales that more than doubled compared to the previous year.
5. Preferential examination is expanded to 6 fields of the advanced technologies including bio, advanced robot, AI, secondary battery, etc.
- Examination of a patent application in the advanced technology field is processed within a maximum of 2 months.
- Preferential examination is expanded to the carbon neutral green technology, such as the national strategic technology-related field, the renewable energy field, etc..
- Requirements for self-prior art search are deleted and requirements for proof documents are relaxed to simplify the requirements for requesting preferential examination.
According to KIPO, from February 19, 2025 the bio, advanced robot, AI fields in addition to the semiconductor, display and secondary battery fields have been newly designated as the subjects of preferential examination and the scope of applying a preferential examination in the secondary battery field has been newly established to be expanded.
Preferential examination of the carbon neutral green technology has been expanded to the national strategic technology-related field and the renewable energy field, etc. in addition to, previously, the carbon capture technology. The subjects of preferential examination have been greatly expanded to support Korean companies to rapidly secure their intellectual property rights.
KIPO has designated the applications for the advanced technology directly related to the national economy and national competitiveness as the subjects of preferential examination since 2022. In addition to the semiconductor (since November 2022), display (since November 2023) and secondary battery (since February 2024) fields, the bio, advanced robot and AI fields have been newly designated as the subjects of preferential examination since February 19, 2025. Thereby, all of the 4 national advanced strategic industries are subject to preferential examination.
The subjects of preferential examination as newly designated at this time are the applications directly related to the bio, advanced robot and AI technologies. The applications which are eligible for preferential examination are to be assigned their relevant cooperative patent classification (CPC) as the main classification and to be filed as the results of the companies producing or preparing for domestic production, national research and development projects, or specialized universities.
The scope of applying a preferential examination in the secondary battery field has been expanded to be redesignated as the designated period expires. The subjects of preferential examination in the secondary battery field are the applications which are directly related to secondary battery materials•parts•equipment, manufacturing or design•performance test•evaluation, control management (battery management system: BMS) or recycling technology and which are filed as the results of the companies producing or preparing for domestic production, national research and development projects, or specialized universities.
The subjects of preferential examination, which were previously limited to the carbon capture, transportation and storage technologies to reduce greenhouse gases, have been expanded to the overall carbon neutral green technology, such as the next generation nuclear power, renewable energy, etc. Specifically, the national strategic technology-related fields, such as hydrogen•ammonia, next generation nuclear power [small modular reactor (SMR), high level radioactive waste management, etc.], advanced mobility (electric car, hydrogen electric vehicle, etc.), have been added as the subjects of preferential examination. In addition, the renewable energy production technology fields (i.e., solar power, wind power, water power, marine energy, geothermal, hydrothermal, etc.) have been added. The subjects of preferential examination are the patent applications assigned with the patent classification of the carbon neutral green technology related to the relevant technologies.
As part of active administration, the procedures and requirements for requesting a preferential examination have been simplified so as to be easily used by Korean companies. Most of all, the requirement for self-prior art search, which was a huge burden on an applicant company requesting a preferential examination due to complicated and complex descriptions, has been deleted from the essential requirements.
The requirement for requesting preferential examination has been relaxed where the applicant practices for business purposes the invention (self-practice) (as of December 2024, 32.6% of the total number of requests), which is the type of preferential examination that Korean companies request for the most.
|
|
|
|
|
Prev |
|
Korean IP News No. 117 in Chines
|
|
|
Next |
|
Korean Industrial Insight No. 10 of AI, Semiconductors, Batteries and Electric vehicles
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
