「The Korean Intellectual Property Office was established to support the promotion of industrial technology development by protecting industrial property rights in timely manner and to handle the era of technological competition by establishing an administrative system for industrial property rights.」

It is an object of the Korean Intellectual Property described in its website.

Now that the value of intellectual property is getting higher due to the 4th industrial revolution let’s take a look at the Korean Intellectual Property Office which is in charge of intellectual property such as patents utility models designs and trademarks as well as evaluations and judgements under the affiliation of Korea.

The trace of the Korean patent system can be found in documents issued by Seok-young Ji to King Gojong in 1882 and it can be said that the concept of patents was established during the Japanese colonial period and the US military regime.

A history of the Korean Intellectual Property Office began on May 23 1945 when the patent office was established in the Ministry of Trade Industry and Energy. Since then after several changes it became independent as the Korean Intellectual Property Office from 1977.

The Korean Intellectual Property Office started as 2 bureaus and 4 divisions (General affairs division Library division Evaluation division and Judgement division) in 1949. Now It is consisted of 1 office 9 bureaus 56 divisions 15 teams and 3 agencies (the Intellectual Property Trial and Appeal Board the International Intellectual Property Training Institute and the Seoul Office) and the total of 1741 people belong.

As much as one out of four employees of the Korean Intellectual Property Office have a doctoral degree outstanding individuals are gathered.

Like this the Korean Intellectual Property Office played a large role in the quantitative growth as well as the qualitative growth of Korean intellectual property. Korea’s intellectual property capacity which was poor at the time of its opening in 1977 became the 4th country in the world with industrial property rights application exceeding 500000 in 2019 and Korea has become an intellectual property power called IP5.

In addition the ‘Inventor’s Hall’ located in the Daejeon Government Buildings Management Office helps people to have an interesting approach to inventions. And ‘KIPRIS’ which is being operated with the Korea Institute of Patent Information build all information belonged to the Korean Intellectual Property Office into a database so that information related to the intellectual property can be searched and viewed using the internet.


(Left) Inventor’s Hall (Right) Patent information search service / Provided by a public blog of the Korean Intellectual Property Office
Through the ‘Press groups for Intellectual Property Policy’ which are made up of the public a blog is being filled with contents that look at intellectual property from the perspective of the public. Contents that look at intellectual property from the perspective of the public are being uploaded in a blog.

 


Launching Ceremony of Press groups for Intellectual Property Policy / Provided by a public blog of the Korean Intellectual Property Office
In 2020 there was a big change in intellectual property markets in Korea.

In May this year on the last day of the 20th National Assembly a partial amendment to the patent law (a law that requires compensation for the sale of products by patent infringers exceeding the production capacity of the patent holder) was passed. Through this the Korean Intellectual Patent Office said that the effect of promoting the activation of patent technology trades and intellectual property finance which had been cut off due to limitations in the protection of patent rights is also expected.

With this the Korean Intellectual Property Office is trying to change the name of an institution. Ju-won Park the head of the Korea Intellectual Property Office said that there is a need of changing the name of the institution to the ‘Intellectual Property Innovation Office’ several times through various medias. The reason why he thoughts the changing of name is that the term is difficult for the public and it contains authoritative thoughts that innovative technologies and creative ideas should be admitted from the state.

If the amendment of the patent law will be conducted in December 2020 and the name of the agency of the institution is changed to the ‘Intellectual Property Innovation Office’ it could be a new year for the representative agency of Korean intellectual property. This is also a reason to watch the next steps of the Korean Intellectual Property Office with affection.
