1. KIPO published a ‘2018 work plan’
The 2018 work plan of the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) includes the following:
▲ An increase in examination manpower is to be carried forwarded to improve the quality of patent examination. It is necessary to additionally secure the patent examination manpower of 1,000 experts until 2022.
▲ Intellectual property (IP) services led by public sectors are to be extensively open to people, and public organizations are to take full charge of evaluation, management, education, etc of search agencies.
▲ IP investments are to be strengthened around people by forming an IP service business investment fund (100 billion Korea Won) like an IP direct investment fund. Fostering a company specialized in patent management (NPE, Non-Practicing Entity) to expedite IP monetization and commercialization, which is a company to seek profits by means of litigation, licensing, etc. based on its owned patent, without manufacturing or selling a product, is fully supported.
▲ An administrative responsibility of the examination quality is to be realized by carrying forward an amendment to the Law such that, when a patent is invalidated, the entire amount of the patent registration fees which have been already paid shall be returned.
▲ Patent fees are to be sharply reduced such that IP-based small and medium companies and venture companies are able to keep patent rights for a long time, to foster commercialization.
2. KIPO will raise up the IP talented people to lead the world
- A 2018’s comprehensive plan for national IP education and training has been published.
The International Intellectual Property Training Institute under KIPO published the ‘2018’s comprehensive plan for national IP education and training and announced to open and operate 188 group education courses and 308 online education courses.
According to this plan, the intellectual property and invention education of patent law and design protection law will be operated this year for 10,000 people for the group education and 310,000 people for the online education, totaling about 320,000 people which annually increased by about 50,000 people in comparison to the last year.
In this year, especially, the tasks for the world-class IP manpower development will be carried forward, focused on the following:
▲ strengthening the expertise to improve the quality of examination and trial,
▲ operating the demander-customized education to be helpful in IP practical business environment,
▲ expanding the IP academic credit bank system through a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with other operations, and
▲ promoting the cooperative project with a foreign IP training institution, etc.
3. KIPO and the Korea Trade Insurance Corporation (KTIC) conclude an MOU to support a small/medium company’s export
- An IP lawsuit insurance and trade insurance will be jointly supported for a small/medium export company.
KIPO and KTIC have started cooperatively supporting a small/medium company to positively use an export-related insurance upon advancing into a foreign country.
KIPO and KTIC signed the MOU to strengthen the cooperation system to support a small/medium company to export.
Considering that an export company is exposed to a lot of risks in IP disputes such as overseas patent lawsuits, transactions in trade and exchange rates, etc., this MOU has been carried forward to support such an export company to more easily use the exportation safety means, such as the overseas IP lawsuit insurance and trade insurance.
The two organizations placed emphasis on strengthening a Korean company’s overseas expansion policy support and decided to continue to cooperate for use activation of a mutual export supporting system and to carry forward the following points of:
▲ expanding the benefits of IP lawsuit insurance and trade insurance members,
▲ preferentially supporting an export company which is high in job creation effects, and
▲ enhancing the overseas IP protective consulting and the consultation of the relevant difficulties.
4. The number of patent applications related to an ultra wide vision (UWV) TV has rapidly increased
According to KIPO, the number of patent applications related to the UWV technology has rapidly increased since 2013. The UWV technology provides a sense of more vivid realism and a feeling of sound field which looks like surrounding a listener by reinforcing a three-dimensional effect and expression power on a far larger big screen than a previous TV.
UWV, which is one of the realistic media technologies, is a new form of realistic image to maximize the sense of realism by providing a wide viewing angle image to cover all viewing angles of a human. In light of a consumer’s taste aiming for a clear picture and stereophonic sound, the increase trend of the relevant applications is expected to steadily continue in the future.
As meeting the aforementioned prospect, the number of the UWV-related patent applications was only 52 in 2010 but greatly increased to 108 in 2013 by more than twice. The relevant patent applications were filed by average 108 every year during the last four (4) years (2014~2017), showing a steady increase.
Since the UWV technology has been developed together with the image compression and transmission technology, the increase trend in the number of the relevant applications is expected to continue in the future, considering that the mobile communication technology has been steadily developed.
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