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Super-Fast Examination No. 1 patent was born in 16 days.(News Letter No. 568) |
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KH |
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2026-01-19 |
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67 |
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1. Super-Fast Examination No. 1 patent was born in 16 days.
- LG Energy Solution’s ‘Advanced Technology No. 1’ and Haecheon Chemical Co., Ltd.’s ‘Export Promotion No. 1’ were registered.
- MOIP awarded the Super-Fast Examination No. 1 Patent Certificate and held a meeting with user companies.
LG Energy Solution’s patent entitled ‘an electrode assembly and a device for manufacturing the same’ was registered on November 11, 2025 as 'advanced technology super-fast examination no. 1 patent’ in 19 days after the request for super-fast examination was filed on October 23, 2025. Haecheon Chemical Co., Ltd.’s patented entitled ‘an eco-friendly snow removal agent containing biomass’ was registered on December 2, 2025 as ‘export promotion super-fast examination no. 1 patent’ in 21 after the request for super-fast examination was filed on November 11, 2025.
MOIP held an award ceremony of a registration certificate to no. 1 patent which was first registered after the super-fast examination system was implemented on October 15, 2025 and held a meeting with companies using the super-fast examination system.
Super-fast examination is a system to support and secure a domestic IP right early by drastically shortening the examination period (overall average: 16.1 months in 2024; ultra-fast examination: 1 month) so that export companies can establish overseas expansion strategies in a timely manner.
This event was prepared to check the progress of the super-fast examination system by inviting the companies which had used the super-fast examination system and to listen to a wide range of difficulties and suggestions from the export field regarding the overall patent system including the super-fast examination system and to actively reflect them in future system improvements.
MOIP awarded the patent registration certificates directly signed by the Commissioner of MOIP to LG Energy Solution (advanced technology no. 1 patent which was decided to be patented in 19 days after filing the request for super-fast examination) and Haecheon Chemical Co., Ltd. (export promotion no. 1 patent which was decided to be patented in 21 days after filing the request for super-fast examination) and shared the experience of using the system with companies using the super-fast examination.
Super-fast examination is the system which has been implemented since October this year in line with the launch of MOIP, to support Korean export companies facing patent disputes with overseas companies to secure their patent rights as soon as possible.
At present, 128 requests for super-fast examination have been filed (as of December 10, 2025) and 5 cases received registration decisions. It takes an average of 25.1 days (based on registered cases) from the request for super-fast examination to the registration decision.
The number of cases for super-fast examination, which is limited to 500 in each of the export promotion field and the advanced technology field, will be expanded to 2,000 each in 2026, and the limit on the number of cases in the export promotion field, which is limited to 3 cases per applicant company, will be abolished.
2. MOIP newly established a Korean Wave Trademark Preferential Examination Division on December 23, 2025.
- In the era of Hallyu tourism, MOIP supports the rapid acquisition of rights of tourism trademarks.
- MOIP supports shortening the waiting period for trademark examination in the food and beverage and accommodation industries and rapid securement of the rights.
MOIP has operated the ‘Korean Wave Trademark Preferential Examination Division’ since December 23, 2025. This division is in charge of examination of the service industries, such as restaurants, cafes, bakeries, hotels, and rental houses, among trademark applications.
The number of foreign tourists in 2025 is expected to reach a new record high while the Korean Wave, such as K-food, K-stay, etc., has spread. In addition, since the number of tourism companies is also on the rise, South Korea’s tourism industry is expected to steadily grow.
Securing a trademark right is an essential element for stable business in the tourism industry where trends change very quickly. Expediting the trademark right acquisition process is of utmost urgency to help the growth of the tourism industry, such as the food and beverage and accommodation industries triggered by the Korean Wave, and to support its development into a national strategic industry.
At present, it takes more than 1 year to secure a trademark right by filing a trademark application. Currently, since 7 dedicated personnel are arranged in the Korean Wave Trademark Preferential Examination Division, companies and small businesses in the tourism industry are expected to secure trademark rights in a shorter period of time.
The Director of the Trademark & Design Examination Bureau of MOIP said, “the Korean Wave has acted as a new growth engine for the Korean tourism industry, beyond a simple global cultural phenomenon…MOIP will make further efforts to ensure that not only the applicants in the tourism industry but also all applicants can rapidly secure trademark rights.”
3. MOIP promotes the advancement of the AI-based examination support system.
- Examination becomes faster and more accurate by a new AI design search.
- AI patent search expands the search technology range and improves performance.
According to MOIP, the advanced ‘AI design search’ system has been provided to improve the design examination efficiency since December 23, 2025.
This system increases the search accuracy by adopting the latest AI image search model and optimizing the model with about 520,000 new learning data. The data to be searched through the AI search system have been expanded.
In January, a trial service of an ‘AI-based patent sentence search system’ starts. This system learned AI algorithm based on about 700,000 cases of learning data, and its search accuracy was improved by finding similar sentences or paragraphs in existing literature-oriented searches. Thereby, examiners are expected to conduct more comprehensive and accurate prior art searches. This prior art AI learning data will be published in the future so that it can be also used in the private sector.
In 2026, trademark classification research will be conducted to automatically classify a trademark by expanding the scope of searchable technology in the patent sentence search system and generating a description of a trademark image by using the AI language model. In addition, the overall examination will be supported through the agentic AI service research to link the AI language model to the previous patent examination system.
The Director of the Intellectual Property Information Bureau of MOIP said, “there have been problems in that the workload of examiners has increased and the examination process has been delayed due to the limited number of examiners and the explosive volume of literature…We will actively support in early securing the right of a creative idea and in promoting the commercialization of technology by introducing AI to the intellectual property administration system to support a rapid and accurate examination.”
4. Quantum computing commercial technology-related patents grow 3 times faster than basic and original technologies.
- The quantum computing commercial technology has been rapidly developed, showing a signal of full-scale industrial application.
- In the midst of the US-China bilateral structure, South Korea ranked 3rd in an average annual growth rate.
Over the last 10 years (2014~2023), the development of quantum computing technology has been rapidly shifted from focusing on basic and original technologies to focusing on commercial technology to be applied to actual industries, such as hardware, software, service, etc. South Korea ranked 3rd (58.5%) in the world in terms of an average annual growth rate in the number of patent applications related to the quantum computing technology, which were filed the last 10 years.
According to MOIP’s analysis, the number of the quantum computing-related patent applications filed with IP5 (MOIP, USPTO, CNIPA, JPO, EPO) over the last 10 years (2014~2023) totaled 9,162, increasing from 76 in 2014 to 1,644 in 2023 and showing an average annual growth rate of 40.7%.
The commercialization technology (hardware, software, service) in the total number of the quantum computing-related patent applications rapidly increased from 7 in 2015 to 1,001 in 2023, recording an average annual growth rate of 86.0%, whereas, the basic and original technologies increased from 76 in 2014 to 643 in 2023, showing an average annual growth rate of only 26.8%. Therefore, the growth rate of the commercial technology was more than 3 times faster than that of the basic and original technologies. This suggests that the quantum computing technology is no longer limited to the basic research stage but it is expanding its industrial applicability, such as hardware implementation, software control, servitization, etc.
In terms of the status of the relevant applications by country, the US accounted for the highest proportion with 4,187 applications (45.7%), followed by China with 2,279 (24.9%), Europe with 1,127 (12.3%), Japan with 656 (7.2%), Canada with 277 (3.0%), South Korea with 248 (2.7%), Israel with 140 (1.5%), and Australia with 95 (1.0%).
It is notable that the US and China accounting for more than 70% of the total number of the relevant applications are leading the international technology competition and these two are intensively expanding the commercial technology-related applications in the hardware and software fields. South Korea’s proportion in the number of these applications is still low but ranks 3rd (58.5%) in terms of an average annual growth rate following China (123.7%) and Israel (109.1%). In addition, since South Korea has steadily increased the number of the applications related to the commercial technology focusing on hardware and software, it is considered to have entered the early stage of industrialization.
In terms of the major applicants, the patent competition has been intensified among the global leading companies. Over the period (2014~2023), IBM (1,120 applications) and Google (680) ranked 1st and 2nd, having an absolute power in the quantum computing field. These companies were followed by Origin Quantum (605), Microsoft (404), Baidu (373), IonQ (227), Fujitsu (184), Tencent (177), D-Wave (175), and IQM Finland (126).
Notably, the Chinese companies including Origin Quantum (131.8%), Baidu (108.4%), and Tencent (91.7%), etc. have been rapidly emerging by recording a growth rate of more than 90% in the number of the relevant patent applications, and the new emerging companies including IonQ and IQM Finland, etc. have expanded their influence in the international market with differentiated technology strategies, such as unique hardware platforms, customized architecture designs, etc. These results are indicators showing that the quantum computing technology competition has spread from big companies of international information technology to professional start-up companies and emerging companies, suggesting that the technology ecosystem has been diversified and the industrialization base has been rapidly expanded.
5. MOIP held a ‘2025 trademark bigdata conference’ (December 22, 2025).
- In the era of AI, the start point of business strategies is trademark big data.
- In the era of AI, changes in trademark trends of companies and future strategies.
The ‘2025 trademark bigdata conference’ hosted by MOIP and organized by the Korea Institute of Intellectual Property was held.
This conference was held with the topic of ‘changes in trademark trends of companies and future strategies in the era of AI’. About 110 participants were, at the conference, including Yong Sun KIM, Minister of MOIP, Gyu Wan CHOI, President of Korea Institute of Intellectual Property, Beom Soo YE, President of Korea Intellectual Property Association, Joon Hee JOH, Chairman of Korea AI•Software Industry Association, Myung Jin KIM, President of MainBiz Association, Kyung Hwan MIN, Managing Director at LG Household & Health Care (LG H&H), and people in the industry, and academia worlds who were interested in the trademark bigdata analysis.
Notably, a congratulatory speech was given by Hayng Yeop KWON, National Assembly Member (Democratic party of South Korea) of Trade, Industry, Energy, SMEs and Startups Committee, which is making efforts to support policies related to big data for the transformation of a digital-based economy.
In the conference, the participants shared the results of analysis of promising industries and issue fields, such as ▲ AI-realted content media and application fields, ▲ bakery fields, and ▲ local specialty fields, etc.
The conference provided the presentations on: ▲ management of company brands in the AI environments (Kyung Hwan MIN, managing director of LG H&H), ▲ plan to utilize a company trademark analysis (Seong Ju LEE, professor at Seoul National University), ▲ management flow of a company in terms of the trends of trademark applications in the AI field (Byung Hee LEE, representative patent attorney of Dawool Patent & Law Firm), and ▲ specialty product brand strategies to revitalize the local economy (Soo Hee JUNG, professor at Duksung Women’s University. This conference was also broadcast live on YouTube.
MOIP has been understanding the technological changes and R&D trends through the patent bigdata analysis and started the trademark bigdata analysis project since 2023 to view the overall trends of the industry in more 3-dimensional way.
In May 2025, MOIP provided the results of analysis based on about 2,300,000 trademark applications filed the last 10 years (2015~2024), such as the trends of the trademark applications by industry, the changes in major and core industries, the relationship between trademark applications and economic fluctuations, the current status of industries where multiple applications were filed by applicant, etc., so that companies, etc. can use the results.
MOIP will monitor the latest trends in the advanced industries, such as AI, etc., through the trademark bigdata analysis project, and it has a plan to conduct a strategical analysis for global K-brands of local brands with regional features and stores.
Through this project, MOIP has a plan to prepare various political support, so that not only business people in the advanced industries but also local small business people and young startups, etc. can challenge a wider market based on the asset of trademarks and a ‘real growth’ in which everyone grows can be realized.
6. The Korea Intellectual Property Trial and Appeal Board (KIPTAB) held a special forum on ‘current status and tasks on a request for patent cancellation and a trial for patent invalidation.
- The forum was prepared to discuss the current status and improvement plans of a request for patent cancellation and a trial for patent invalidation.
KIPTAB of MOIP held a special forum on the ‘current status and tasks on a request for patent cancellation and a trial for patent invalidation.’ This forum was arranged to discuss the direction of systematic organization of the patent cancellation request system and the patent invalidation trial system, based on the results of the ‘study on improving the trial system to improve the stability of a patent right’ carried forwarded by KIPTAB.
Said study proposed the necessity of ▲ expanding the period and reasons of the patent cancellation request system to correct a patent erroneously granted at an early stage, ▲ ensuring consistency of requirements and procedures for requesting the patent cancellation request and the patent invalidation trial therebetween, and preparing validity estimation regulations to strengthen the legal stability of a patent. Notably, it was emphasized that a dual patent strategy was needed to quickly clean up a poor-quality patent at the early stage, by using the patent cancellation request system and to stably maintain a valid patent after that.
This forum was prepared to share the results of the study with the practical, academic and industrial communities and to specify the political and practical discussions needed in the future system improvement process.
In the forum, ▲ a plan to clean up a poor-quality patent early was discussed including the expansion of the period and reasons for requesting a patent cancellation, based on the current status of operating the patent cancellation request system. In addition, ▲ a plan to introduce a duty to specify technical details in a request for an invalidation trial was also discussed. After the presentations, experts including industry-academia-research officials participated to share their opinions to improve the effectiveness of the trial systems.
The President of KIPTAB said, “quickly filtering out poor-quality patents is an essential foundation to strengthen the industrial competitiveness, and simultaneously, stably protecting valid patents is a key element to support companies’ technology investment and innovation…We believe that this forum will substantially contribute to the establishment of a strong patent ecosystem and the elaboration of the trial systems.
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