1. Searching patent information becomes easier and convenient
According to the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), beginning on December 1, 2017 a search service for a beginner is to be provided through KIPRIS (KIPRIS.or.kr), which provides a free intellectual property (IP) search service, so that any one can easily search the information of IP rights (patent, utility model, design and trademark).
Since the previous service has been inconvenient for a beginner to search IP rights because it utilized a rather complicated screen and difficult IP right terms to provide various search functions, the service is improved to enable an easier and more convenient search by reflecting the users?opinions.
This reformed KIPRIS start screen divides an access path for a beginner user and a general user, to increase the user accessibility. After the access path is selected, the user can directly access a search window (for beginner or general user).
The main screen provides four (4) search types, a step by step search, number search, name search and sentence search, at the beginner level. In addition, a service name and a guide image which are intuitively known are used to enhance the degree of understanding, and explanation phrases of an IP term and a selection menu are now added.
2. Examination information of a foreign patent application is checked by one click
- The number of nations providing examination information increased and user-centered services improved.
It is possible to easily and rapidly check the examination information of a patent application filed in a foreign country.
KIPO additionally provides the examination information of Canada, Australia and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) through the homepage (http://kopd.kipo.go.kr) of the One Portal Dossier (OPD), which is an integrated search service of patent examination information, and drastically improves the service functions.
OPD is the service to check, in real time and on one screen, the examination progress status of patent applications filed in the Republic of Korea and the major countries including the US, China, Japan and Europe and to enable a search of the original text. KIPO has provided the OPD service since March 2015.
This OPD service expansion is noted in that the number of nations enabling the examination information search has increased and a diversity of functions have been added.
The document filtering function is added, thereby enabling a selective search for only an important document among various documents related to the patent procedures.
A batch saving function is newly added to save the original text of the examination documents.
A notification function is also added to OPD, to immediately notify the really simple syndication, rich site summary (RSS) whenever the patent examination-related procedures progress.
3. A ?017 Korea intellectual property (IP) exhibition?for the future inventions has been opened
- A nation뭩 largest integrated exhibition of an invention븊rademark뷶esign has been opened꿻he inventions of thirty (30) countries are together.
- A special show is prepared for the latest IP trends and the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics-related designs, etc.
The ?017 Korea IP exhibition? which is hosted by KIPO and conducted by Korea Invention Promotion Association (KIPA), has been held from November 30 to December 3, 2017 in COEX Hall A, Seoul, the Republic of Korea.
This event shows Korean technology products, trademark and designs selected through contests in the country. Further, about 360 creative inventions entered from 30 countries are shown at one location. Accordingly, it is expected to present, at a single place, the trends and streams of the worldwide latest inventions, trademarks and designs.
In this 36th Korea IP exhibition, 90 excellent inventions selected through examination are shown and awards of them were held on November 30.
The ?017 Korea IP exhibition?is projected to provide visitors with a variety of opportunities for participation, by operating not only the exhibit hall for a prize-winning work but also the 2020 IP trend hall to meet with the technology that has been recently issued in relation to the 4th industrial revolution, the IP job lecture hall where the work-site operation staff directly reports the IP job-related stories, and the IP steppingstone special hall to support the preliminary technology founders to progress their ideas to obtain property rights.
4. In the 4th industrial revolution era, the competition to secure a 3D printing patent right is intense
- The number of patent applications for 3D printing has rapidly increased since 2013.
Domestic and foreign companies?competition is intense to secure patent rights to preoccupy the 3D printing technology which is one of the core technologies in the 4th industrial revolution era.
According to KIPO, the number of the 3D printing-related patent applications was less than 10 per year by 2012 but 63 in 2013 and continued to increase 429 in 2016, showing a rapid increase over the last three years.
The 3D printing technology is to manufacture a product of a 3D shape, by layering a metal or polymer material one layer by one layer, based on a 3D-designed drawing. Since this technology can be realized by combining device, material and SW technologies, it is a next generation advanced concept technology to have a great influence throughout the relevant industrial fields in the 4th industrial revolution era.
In view of the trends of the relevant applications filed in 2017 based on detailed technological fields, the 3D printing device-related applications had the highest percentage (71.1%) with 263 applications. This is because many companies have actively conducted the technological developments to secure a patent right of a new 3D printing device as the term of the original patent of the 3D printing device expired.
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