1. KIPO will open a ‘patent analysis center for future national strategies’
According to the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), a ‘patent analysis center for future national strategies’ (hereinafter, referred to as the ‘patent analysis center’) will be opened in the Korea Intellectual Property Strategy Agency (KISTA). The patent analysis center with the high quality patent database (DB) refined by core technologies and a staff specializing in patent analysis will fully establish the future R&D strategies and discover promising technologies and companies, based on patent analysis.
As the information of high-quality technologies and the information of the rights verified by each national Patent Office, about three hundred million of patents published in the world have systematically recorded the solutions to technical problems. When these patent big data are properly analyzed, since it enables the finding of promising technologies to preoccupy original and core patents, the importance becomes high in developing and planning the R&D tasks.
This year KIPO has carried forward the opening of the patent analysis center as the base to further expand the patent data analysis. The patent information of about 2,900,000 cases which has been secured has been built as the database in connection with lawsuit·technical transfer information, company information and R&D investment information.
2. KIPO and Korea Development Bank (KDB) have concluded a business agreement to activate an IP-based investment
- KIPO and KDB agreed to raise a cooperation fund.
KIPO and KDB concluded the business agreement for the activation of the IP-based investment in the headquarters office of KDB in Seoul and agreed to fully operate the investment to the companies having excellent patents which are high in growth possibility.
This agreement has the following major matters of: raising the cooperation fund between the two organizations to expand the IP finance to the investment, investing to small and medium companies based on the evaluation of patent value, and connecting the investment and loan, etc.
KIPO and KDB concluded the business agreement for the IP finance in March, 2013 and have released a secured loan/mortgage on a patent which is a first IP finance model. The secured loan on a patent is a system to support a small/medium or strong medium company with a loan to the maximum of 20 billion Korea Won only on an IP right, such as a patent right, etc., without any material security. Through this system, KDB granted loan of 206.5 billion Korea Won to 157 companies over the last three years.
3. The number of Japanese patent applications filed by Koreans is ranked as 3rd continuously for 12 years
The number of Japanese patent applications filed by Korean companies in 2015 was 5,222, continuing the 3rd place rank for 12 years.
KIPO analyzed the ‘Status Report 2016’ published by the Japanese Patent Office. As the result, in ranking the number of Japanese patent applications filed by foreigners, the Republic of Korea was in the 3rd place in 2015, following the USA (26,501 applications) and Germany (6,430) and followed by France (3,369) and China (2,840).
The number of the Japanese patent applications filed by Korean people was 7,220 in 2006 which was the peak, with fluctuations of a narrow range. However, Koreans steadily filed Japanese patent applications and kept a high rank in ranking by countries after 2004.
The number of the Japanese trademark applications filed by Koreans had relatively steadily increased and, for the first time, passed over 1000 cases in 2010. Specially, the number of the Japanese trademark applications filed by Koreans in 2015 was 2,145 which was an all time high, showing an increase of 28.4% compared to the previous highest record, 1,671, in 2012. In Japanese design applications, the Republic of Korea continuously held on to the 2nd rank by countries for 10 years after 2006.
4. The number of design applications related to an air cleaner has increased
According to KIPO, the number of Korean design applications related to an air cleaner during the last 3 years was 59 in 2013, 118 in 2014 and 128 in 2015, showing a remarkable increase. The number thereof reached 56 as of April in 2016 and if this trend continues, the number is expected to be over the number in 2015.
The number of air cleaner-related designs registered for the last 3 years was 37 in 2016, 96 in 2015, 86 in 2014 and 67 in 2013.
As the awareness of consumers regarding the risk of yellow dust and fine dust has increased, air cleaners are becoming the daily essentials. The domestic market of air cleaners which was 600 billion Korea Won in 2015 is expected to reach 1 trillion Korea Won in 2016.
The number of yellow dust observation days in the spring in Seoul area was 6 in 2014, 10 in 2015 and 6 in March to April in 2016.
Accordingly, companies have started developing designs for air cleaners to be used for kitchens, desks and automobiles and designs for portable air cleaners, taking a step forward from the air cleaners for living rooms.
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