1. The period for filing an objection has been shortened to 30 days from 2 months from the date of publishing a trademark application.
According to KIPO, the revised Korean trademark Act with the main point of shortening the period for filing an objection has been in effect since July 22, 2025. As the period for filing an objection has been shortened (from 2 months to 30 days), it is expected that the pace of an applicant receiving a trademark right will accelerate.
The system of filing an objection under the trademark act is a procedure that, where a trademark application has been published since an examiner cannot find any reasons for rejection, any person may file an objection to the application (based on the ground that the application constitutes reasons for rejection of a decision to reject trademark registration according to Article 54) within 2 months from the date of publication of the application, thereby enabling examination through public participation.
Since it took about 12.8 months until a Korean trademark application to start the examination of a Korean trademark application (about 10.5 months in an international trademark application) as of June 2025, there have been requests to shorten the period of filing an objection so that a trademark right can be received quickly. In this regard, even though the percentage of filing objections to a total of trademark application publications was only about 1%, the other 99% of the trademark applications also waited 2 months.
But, since the information of a trademark filed in an application is disclosed at the same time as the trademark application, a third party can submit an opinion on the trademark filed in the application through the information providing system anytime. Further, since the system of extending (by 30 days) a period of amending a reason for filing an objection is prepared, the period for the third party to submit an opinion on the trademark filed in the application is also sufficiently guaranteed.
The revised trademark act is applied to trademark applications published since July 22, 2025.
2. KIPO discussed the establishment of examination standards in accordance with the evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
-A ‘council for revising AI patent examination standards’ consisting of the industrial IP experts was launched.
- Discussions for revising AI patent examination standards reflecting the AI technology trends have begun in earnest.
On July 22, 2025, KIPO launched the council for revising AI patent examination standards and had a first meeting.
In line with the rise and change of AI technology, KIPO established the examination standards in the AI field in 2020 and revised them twice in 2022 and 2023. However, as the recent AI technology has rapidly changed by being combined with the new technology, such as industrial AI, on-device AI, etc. and by expanding the scope of utilization, the need to reflect these changes in the examination standards has been raised.
KIPO launched the council consisting of 18 working-level experts in charge of IP rights in industries, such as venture companies, academia and research institutes and plans to actively reflect the voice of the AI industry field in the revision of the examination standards.
In the first meeting, they shared the trends of domestic and overseas AI-related patent applications and the AI-related controversial precedents, ca and examination cases, etc. and widely discussed the opinions of experts on the direction of revision of examination standards. They also had time to freely discuss difficulties, etc. when filing the AI-related patent applications , to seek substantial improvement measures.
KIPO will prepare a draft revision by September through various discussions and opinions centered on the council and will finalize the final draft.
3. Startups’ financing was up to 17.1 times when filing patent and trademark applications and exit possibility was more than 2 times.
-When startups preceded activities of filing patent and trademark applications, financing possibility increased by 1.7~6.3 times.
-The number of patent and trademark applications as filed was more than 20, financing possibility increased up to 17.1 times.
-Startups’ exit possibility increased by more than 2 times and up to 5.9 times when filing patent and trademark applications in advance.
It is indicated that when a startup preceded the activities of filing patent and trademark applications, financing possibility was up to 17.1 times and exit possibility (IPO, M&A) increased by more than 2 times.
On July 21, 2025, the Presidential Council on Intellectual Property and KIPO jointly published a research report, ‘the importance of startups’ financing and patents and trademarks’, commissioned by the Korea Institute of Intellectual Property (KIIP) and Korea Development Institute (KDI).
This research empirically analyzed the impact of intellectual property activities on startups’ financing and exit possibilities by analyzing 2,615 startups’ investment information and patent and trademark application data over 1999~2025.
When a startup preceded the patent and trademark application activities, its financing possibility was higher by at least 1.7 times than those which did not have the patent and trademark application activities.
The startup’s financing possibility increased by 1.7 times at a seed stage, 3.1 times at an early stage (series A~B), and up to 6.3 times at a later stage (series C~), showing that it gradually increased toward the later stage.
The startup’s financing possibility increased by 1.7 times at a seed stage, 3.1 times at an early stage (series A~B), and up to 6.3 times at a later stage (series C~), showing that it gradually increased toward the later stage.
The types of intellectual properties that startups were trying to secure were also found to have an effect on financing. When a startup preceded the activities of filing patent and trademark applications at a later stage, the financing possibility became high up to 9 times.
In addition, the size of a startup’s patent and trademark applications was found to have the greatest impact on financing. In the case of filing 20 or more patent and trademark applications at the later stage of startup, financing possibility rose to a whopping 17.1 times.
When a startup preceded withthe activities of filing patent and trademark applications, the possibility of exit (IPO or M&A) to recoup investment was found to increase by 2 times or more.
Additionally, when a startup filed 20 or more domestic and overseas patent and trademark applications, exit possibility increased up to 5.9 times.
4. In case of intentional infringement of a trademark or design, a quintuple punitive compensation system has been implemented from July 22, 2025.
-The punitive compensation level has increased from 3 times to 5 times, the world’s highest level.
In the case where anyone intentionally infringes a trademark right or a design right, the infringer will be liable for damages up to 5 times.
According to KIPO, the revised Korean trademark act and design act to increase punitive damages from up to 3 times to 5 times have been implemented since July 22, 2026.
The expansion of the limit of punitive damages is a measure to prevent the malicious infringement of trademark and design rights and to secure the effectiveness of damage relief. Regarding the reason why infringements are not eradicated, points have continued to be raised that it is because the profits gained through infringement are greater rather than paying full price for intellectual property. In fact, if you look at KIPO’s crackdown support performance by monitoring domestic online counterfeit products, since the distribution of the counterfeit products was sharply increased from 137,382 in 2020 to 272,948 in 2024, showing an increase by 2 times over just 5 years, it needs for stronger rights protection.
Compared to major overseas countries, the countries enabling up to 5 times punitive compensation is only China and South Korea. Japan has no punitive compensation system regarding an infringement to a patent right, trademark right and design right. USA applies up to a 3 times punitive compensation system to a patent and design infringement and up to a 2 times punitive compensation system to a trade secret infringement, without any punitive compensation system to a trademark infringement.
5. KIPO discussed ways to activate the valuation of intellectual property.
KIPO and ‘evaluation agencies for inventions, etc.’ which conducts IP valuation held a meeting of evaluation organizations for inventions, etc., to boost the IP valuation market.
Valuation results are used for IP financing, technology transfer, etc. by indicating the economic value of IP in terms of value, grade, etc.
In this meeting, 7 major agencies among 32 evaluation agencies for inventions, etc. which are designated by KIPO participated to discuss how to improve the IP valuation system and ways to activate the relevant market.
The evaluation agencies for inventions, etc. evaluate the value of IP held by an innovation company, to help the innovative company raise money through IP and use it for commercialization. Especially, as the amount used by companies for financing based on the IP valuation reached 10.8 trillion Korea won as of 2024, the IP valuation has played a key role in driving the growth of companies with excellent IPs.
The evaluation agencies participating in the meeting suggested ▲ preparation of support measures to boost investment in intellectual property, ▲ expansion of the utilization field of IP valuation results, such as listing of technical special cases, ▲ strengthening of support for quality control and infrastructure management of evaluation agencies, ▲ improvement of the business systems, such as support for IP mortgage and commercialization, etc.
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