1. KIPO has extensively opened patent data such as a patent technical terminology dictionary, etc.
The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) announced the opening of Korean and foreign patent data including artificial intelligence (AI) learning data in the area of patents through a patent information web service (KIPRISPlus), to promote the AI technology development of Korean patent information service companies.
First of all, three kinds of learning data (1,990,000 cases) including the patent technical terminology dictionary, patent drawing tag information and promising patent evaluation information were opened, without charge, on January 31, 2018, to be helpful to a private company developing a new service applying AI.
The patent technical terminology dictionary is the data built by combining the additional information such as information communication terms to technical terms extracted from electric and electronic patent publications, to be used as learning data for AI development.
The patent drawing tag information is the data built by connecting drawing references and description in patent publications. Use of this information enables one to easily understand the relevant invention content from only the drawings.
2. KIPO will invest a fund of funds of 55 billion Korea Won and form a fund of 100 billion Korea Won
- KIPO will concentrate investment to an intellectual property (IP) monetizing project and a patent commercialization in a new technology area.
This year, KIPO plans to form an IP investment fund of 100 billion Korea Won (government: 55 billion Korea Won, private: 45 billion Korea Won) by investing about 55 billion Korea Won into the fund of funds.
This is expected to be a great help to small/medium companies and venture companies which hold excellent patents in securing commercialization funds.
Specifically, funds for investment in foreign IP applications and monetizing will be for the first time formed in this year for universities and public research institutes that have difficulties in securing foreign patents due to an insufficiency of funds.
By having invested to a patent account of the fund of funds since 2006, KIPO arranged to achieve an investment of 877.4 billion Korea Won to 602 small and medium companies and venture companies by 2017.
This year, four (4) IP investment funds are formed including a new growth patent commercialization fund (17 billion Korea Won), a public patent commercialization fund (20 billion Korea Won), a foreign IP monetizing fund (30.5 billion Korea Won) and an IP direct investment fund (32.5 billion Korea Won)
3. Filing patent applications related to a 5G mobile ultra-wide band service is active
As the 5th generation (5G) mobile communication demonstration service was shown in the 2018 Pyeong-Chang Winter Olympics, an interest in the 5G mobile communication has further increased.
According to KIPO, the number of patent applications related to the 5G mobile ultra-wide band (enhanced mobile broadband: eMBB) service has greatly increased for the last few years since the international standardization of the 5G mobile communication standards has been actively progressed.
The 5G mobile eMBB service, which is the mobile communication service to faster transmit data by using a broad bandwidth of microwave frequency, provides a maximum transmission speed of 20 Gbps, which is faster by twenty (20) times than LTE. Since the 5G mobile eMBB service ensures a transmission speed of 100 Mbps while a user is moving, the user does not feel a data delay, etc and therefore in the future it is expected to be applied to in various areas, such as virtual and augmented reality, ultra high definition picture streaming, hologram, etc. as well as general communications.
Like meeting such an expectation, the number of the patent applications related to the 5G mobile eMBB service, which was only 16 in 2013 and 27 in 2014, increased to 133 in 2015, which was almost five (5) times compared to the previous year, and 191 in 2017, showing that the number of the relevant patent applications has steadily increased. In light of the point that the 5G international standardization has been in process, the increase trend is expected to continue in the future.
4. The number of patent applications related to an AI-based guide robot has sharply increased
According to KIPO, starting in 2013, the filing of the patent applications related to an AI-based guide robot has rapidly increased since 2015.
Since a guide robot which provides a guide service by grasping needs through an interaction with a customer enables to do 24-hour work and to perform a physical or emotional labor instead of a human, it is expected to greatly contribute to the relevant service industry.
As expected, the number of the patent applications related to the AI-based guide robot, which was only 26 in 2014 and 39 in 2015, increased to 133 for the last two (2) years (2016~2017), showing an increase of more than two (2) times compared to 65 during the previous two (2) years. In light of the point that an activity area of a guide robot has expanded to financial product guide windows as well as hotels and shopping malls, the number of the relevant applications is expected to continue to increase in the future.
From the trend of the applicants of the patent applications related to the AI-based guide robot, which were filed for the last three (3) years, big companies with 83 applications held 48% of the total of the relevant applications, small and medium companies with 32 applications held 19%, and foreign companies with 29 applications held 17%, showing that the proportion of the applications filed by the big companies was relatively high.
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