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The Ministry of Intellectual Property (MOIP) receives applications for the ‘2026 IP-based research and development (IP-R&D) strategy support project’ (January 22~February 2, 2026).(News Letter No. 570) |
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KH |
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2026-02-19 |
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1. The Ministry of Intellectual Property (MOIP) receives applications for the ‘2026 IP-based research and development (IP-R&D) strategy support project’ (January 22~February 2, 2026).
- A super gap in high-tech and strategic technologies, such as AI, etc., is secured with the IP-R&D strategies.
- The creation of excellent and core patents in industry, academia and research institutes is promoted through the R&D support using the IP information.
# The bearings for cryogenic LNG pumps being developed by Company “A” are essential components for LNG carriers and storage facilities but they have been completely dependent on imports. Through IP-R&D strategy support, they analyzed overseas companies’ patents to establish the product design ideas and core technology acquisition strategies, so that localization of parts was successful for the first time.
# Company “B”, which is a startup for an AI-based food tech, had neither technical information of other companies nor patent for overseas expansion. Through IP analysis, they identify the technology areas that other companies were focusing on and derived the areas for technology differentiation, so that they began their overseas expansion in earnest by upgrading the AI-specialized model technology and signing the supply contracts with overseas companies.
MOIP published an announcement of its first IP-R&D strategy support project this year and actively started support to secure the super-gap in the high-tech and strategic technologies, such as AI, etc.
MOIP announced to recruit companies and institutes to participate in the ‘IP-R&D strategy support project in the first half of 2026’, which supports the establishment of IP-R&D strategies, for small and medium companies, middle market enterprises, universities and public institutions. The recruitment period is from January 22 to February 2, 2026.
The IP-R&D strategy support project is customized by using IP information as the start point of R&D at the industry, academia and research institute’s R&D stage, ① to avoid and invalidate overseas prior patents, ② to preempt excellent and core patents in blank area, and ③ to present the optimal R&D directions. The target of this announcement includes the small and medium companies and middle market enterprises which have research organizations, and universities and public institutions which are carrying out R&D tasks. Support is available regardless of the technical fields.
This year, the IP-R&D strategy support project plans to expand support for artificial intelligence + industrial convergence (AI+X) technology applied across industries, such as manufacturing, mobility, robotics, and biotechnology, etc., to effectively respond to the era of AI transformation. In addition, MOIP strengthens cooperation with the R&D ministries, such as the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT), the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources (MOTIR), the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment (MCEE), etc., to secure technological sovereignty in the key national fields, such as high-tech biotechnology, carbon neutrality, and materials, components and equipment, etc.
For local-led growth, the IP-R&D strategy support project will support the IP-R&D strategies customized for a regional specialized industry by collaborating with local governments and agencies. To support the growth of promising deep tech startups, the project plans to link up with investment and financing programs of financial institutions, such as Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK), Korea Development Bank (KDB), etc., so that startups receiving IP-R&D strategies can receive follow-up financial support.
MOIP will actively support in fostering an excellent IP research and analysis specialized institution so that the IP-R&D strategies can be effectively established in the R&D fields of industry, academia and research institute and in building a quality management system for strategies so that the high-quality strategies can be spread through R&D.
2. South Korea ranked 1st in the world in the number of patent applications relating to the next-generation AI memory ‘ferroelectric device’.
- South Korea ranked 1st in the world in the number of applications filed over 12 years and the average annual increase rate.
- Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix were included in the global top 3.
MOIP conducted the analysis of the patents in the ferroelectric device field, which were filed in the IP5 (MOIP, USPTO, EPO, JPO and CNIPA) over the last 12 years (2012~2023). As a result, the number of the relevant applications filed by South Korea was 395 (43.1%), ranking 1st.
South Korea also had the highest average annual increase rate of 18.7%, indicating that South Korea has led the next-generation memory technology by ranking 1st in both the number of the applications and the increase rate.
Ferroelectric is a dielectric material which provides non-volatility by maintaining electrical polarization, without applying an electric field, and realizes a fast charge response rate through polarization transition.
Devices using ferroelectric can use existing semiconductor equipment compared to other next-generation technologies, so it is possible to produce without investing in new equipment.
In addition, it overcomes the physical limitations of existing materials with its unique micronization performance which maintains ferroelectric properties even at nanometer-level thin thickness.
Due to this process compatibility and miniaturization performance, ferroelectric devices are positioned as key materials which will lead the next-generation AI memory industry, by providing the optimal conditions to produce highly integrated AI chips.
The relevant memory market is also growing rapidly.
The global 3D NAND flash memory market is expected to grow with an average annual growth rate of 21.8% from 21.8 billion US Dollars in 2024 to reach 149.4 billion US Dollars in 2034. The ferroelectric memory (FeRAM) market is also expected to grow with an average annual growth rate of 3.8% from 2021 to reach 380 million US Dollars in 2028.
By applicant nationality, South Korea filed 395 applications (43.1%), ranking 1st, followed by the US with 260 (28.4%) ranking 2nd, Japan with 170 (18.5%) ranking 3rd, China with 42 (4.6%) ranking 4th, and EU with 38 (4.1%) ranking 5th.
In terms of the increase rate for the same period, South Korea had the highest increase rate of 18.7%, followed by China (14.7%) and the US (12.5%). The EU (5.8%) and Japan (-19.8%) were lower than or decreased from the average annual increase rate of 9.5% of other major countries.
< Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix were included in the global top 3.>
Major applicants included: 1st was Samsung Electronics (South Korea, 27.8%, 255 applications), 2nd was INTEL (USA, 21.0%, 193), 3rd was SK Hynix (South Korea, 13.4%, 123), 4th was TSMC (Taiwan, 10.1%, 93), and 5th was NANYA (Taiwan, 5.3%, 49).
Notably, Samsung Electronics (139 applications) and SK Hynix (86) based of the last 3 years (2021~2023) ranked 1st and 2nd, confirming that South Korea is leading the research and development of ferroelectric devices for AI memory around the world.
3. MOIP amended a ‘guidelines for patent examination practice in the AI field’.
- AI-related patent examination cases are available to check out in the guideline for the patent examination practice.
On January 15, 2026, MOIP announced to distribute the amended guideline for patent examination practice in the AI field, to help applicants understand.
This guideline, which is a practical guideline to help people understand the requirements for writing applications and the determination of inventive steps relating to the AI technology, has been continuously supplemented and amended in line with the development of the AI technology since its enactment in 2020.
This amendment started with the demand from the field that, as the new types of AI technology, such as physical AI, on-device AI, etc., have rapidly spread throughout the industry, patent examination cases of the latest technology is needed. In July, 2025, MOIP launched a ‘council for AI examination standards’ and prepared the amendment draft by communicating with Korean AI representative companies and institutes, thereby making the final draft by gathering public opinion. The guideline for patent examination practice including 5 recent cases in addition to 10 previous examination cases is available for download at the MOIP’s website.
The newly added examination cases are provided with comparison of technical characteristics of the cases where patents using the AI technology were granted and denied, such that AI-related researchers and inventors can easily refer to them when filing patent applications. For example, the case of ‘serving robot control’ with the on-device AI technology shows that, when a robot is mounted with a published AI model which becomes lighter in the well-known method, it cannot be patented; whereas, a robot equipped with a published AI model which is optimized and becomes lighter by reflecting the environment of the restaurant where the robot moves or reflecting the available resources of the robot, etc., it can be patented.
The case of ‘providing a professional answer using AI speaker’ shows that, when questions and answers conducted previously by online chatting is merely changed to generative AI, it cannot be patented, whereas, when customized questions are generated at generated AI by recognizing the age group based on voice recognition, it can be patentable.
4. MOIP published the results of cracking down on the distribution of counterfeit products in 2025.
- 388 people were indicted on criminal charges and about 140,000 counterfeit products were confiscated (corresponding to 432.6 billion Korea Won in genuine value).
The number of people indicted on criminal charges was 388, with an increase of 26% compared to the previous year, and the value of the original products corresponded to 432.6 billion Korea Won which sharply increased by 32 times. These resulted by further strengthening the crackdown on the counterfeit products to protect the IP rights and consumer safety.
Results of crackdown by trademark special judicial policy by year
2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
Criminal case (number of people) 557 372 234 307 388
Confiscated goods (number of items) 78,061 375,583 122,400 176,273 142,995
Genuine value (100 million Korea Won) 415.1 425.8 278.6 134.3 4,325.9
In this crackdown, the planned investigation focused on major distribution networks has yielded significant results by catching the largest counterfeit luxury accessory distributor (June 2025: about 39,000 items, genuine value of 340 billion Korea Won) in a single case since the trademark special judicial police launched (September 2010). In addition, the trademark special judicial police detected a number of counterfeit products directly related to people’s health (cosmetics, glasses, etc.) and safety auto parts, electronic products, etc.), such as counterfeit cosmetic products (May 2025: about 46,000 items, genuine value of 2 billion Korea Won) and counterfeit auto parts (July 2025, about 23,000 items, genuine value of 250 million Korea Won), etc.
In addition, a case of distributing counterfeit goods by taking advantage of the increase in sales of merchandise according to the popularity of K-pop was detected (August 2025), and about 29,000 counterfeit goods (genuine value of 500 million Korea Won) were confiscated with trademark owners.
On the other hand, as the distribution of counterfeit products through social network services (SNS), such as Naver Band and Café, Instagram, and YouTube, etc., had spread to avoid crackdown, the crackdown on these was also strengthened. As a result, 44 people were criminally charged and about 17,000 items (genuine value of 12.7 billion Korea Won) were confiscated.
As for the live streaming which avoids a crackdown by selling counterfeit products for a short period of time using overseas platforms and then immediately deleting them, the trademark special judicial police criminally charged 22 people through a planned investigation of raiding the broadcasting sites through broadcast monitoring, interrogation, and undercover investigations over several months.
Looking at the confiscated counterfeit products by item, jewelry items have the highest proportion of 27.5% based on the number of confiscated items, followed by cosmetics (7.4%) and clothing (6.7%). In terms of genuine value, jewelry items accounted for the majority at 87.6%.
Notably, since the cosmetic class, such as cosmetics, perfumes, and mask packs, etc., which are used directly on consumers’ skin, have been newly detected on a large scale, it is raised as a factor threating people’s health and safety.
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