1. KIPO held a joint seminar of trademark examiners, trial examiners and judges
- KIPO prepared a place for communication for field-centered examinations, trials and lawsuits
The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) held a joint seminar of trademark examiners, trial examiners and judges for the patent attorney industry, to improve communication within the field and the quality of examination for patents, in a conference room in the Korea Intellectual Property Service Center located at Gangnam-gu, Seoul on April 28, 2017.
This seminar was arranged to provide an applicant with substantial help by seeking consistent and efficient examination, trial and lawsuit plans by minimizing differences in the judgment standards and opinions of judging main agents such as examiners, trial examiners and Patent Court judges who are in charge of examination, trials and lawsuits of trademark and design applications.
Major contents to be dealt with were as follows: ▲study of court’s opinions through main precedents, such as the trials for cancellation of a trial and decision and the infringement trials of the Korean Supreme Court and Patent Court (Patent Court, Judge: YOUN, JuTahk) ▲ methods to overcome the differences in opinions with the judging main agents through the actual dispute cases (Korea Intellectual Property Trial and Appeal Board, Examination Judge: YOUN, JongSeok) ▲notes related to the opinions of objection examiners and objections against recent decisions of trademark examiners (KIPO, Complex Trademark Examination Division, Secretary: HAN, SangGyu), etc.
2. A patent interview service is actively used
- A patent examination with an applicant is strengthened.
The usage rate of the patent interview service which KIPO introduced in 2015 rapidly increased (from 367 cases in 2015 to 820 in 2016). Under the patent interview service which systemizes a request, preparation and progress of the interview, an applicant can officially get advice on whether an invention is patentable.
The patent interview service is divided into two such as preliminary examination and an amendment draft review. The preliminary examination is a system to exchange opinions in advance, to overcome a reason(s) for rejection before a notice for a reason(s) for rejection is issued. The amendment draft review is a system to advise about an amendment plan based on the reason(s) for rejection presented by an examiner.
On April 6, 2017, KIPO announced to further upgrade the service such that a faithful communication is performed to keep pace with the activation of a patent interview.
The previous interview service had a problem in that the interview time would be unnecessarily long because it was difficult to understand the accurate position of the other party prior to the interview. In comparison, the new interview service makes it possible to promptly understand an issue and to reach at an agreement by sharing written major opinions prior to the interview.
3. KIPO-ETRI concluded a business agreement contract for the artificial intelligence (AI) technology development in an ExoBrain using patent
- The two mutually cooperate to develop the AI service in the patent field.
KIPO and the Korea Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) concluded the memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the AI service development in the patent field in the ETRI on April 19, 2017.
This agreement was carried forwarded by sharing recognition that the close cooperation would be needed in mutually exchanging the AI technology and information, to apply the AI technology as the core of the fourth industrial revolution to the patent field.
The two agencies will plan to mutually cooperate in the AI service discovery and system development in the patent field, by applying the project, ‘EXoBrain Phase 2 (2017~2019)’, as the AI which ETRI has been developed since 2013 with the support from the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning.
The services which are under review include an intelligent patent search service to analyze an application and to automatically search a prior art document through the AI, and an AI counseling service to answer to inquiries, such as patent systems and application filing procedures, etc., regardless of time. Through these services, it is expected that the accessibility of the general public to patent information will greatly increase.
4. KIPO held a Heads of Intellectual Property Offices Conference (HIPOC) with 13 Asian countries
The Heads of the Intellectual Property Offices from 13 countries of the Asia area met together to be initiated in the intellectual property (IP) administrative development experiences of KIPO. KIPO held the HIPOC on April 12 through 14, 2017 in Daejeon.
This conference was held with the theme “client-centric IP service and leadership” and attended by the heads of the Intellectual Property Offices from the 13 countries, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, India, Iran, Cambodia, Philippines and Pakistan, and Mario Matus, deputy director general of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
KIPO has supplied appropriate technology to a developing country by using a patent which expired and has developed a brand to improve an added value of a product of a developing country. Further, KIPO has implemented projects through WIPO Korea Funds-in Trust to strengthen the IP capacity of a developing country and has developed an IP education content to train an international IP expert.
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