Executive Summary
The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) announced a system allowing the submission of a provisional application having the detailed description of an invention without using the existing format of the application in order for domestic companies in Korea to expedite the filing of patents from March 30, 2020.
Patent law is a system in which an exclusive right is granted to the person who filed an invention earliest throughout the world, and thus there is increasing competition between companies to file patents before other companies having similar technologies.
Previously, because an applicant was required to submit an application drafted according to a regulated format and method when filing a patent, there were many complaints such as that re-writing research results such as theses in the application format discourages expedited filing.
In response to this, KIPO has revised the Enforcement Regulations of the Patent Act and the Utility Model Act, stipulating that an application can be filed in a free form, not following the previous format, when a patent or a utility model is filed.
However, when only a provisional application is submitted, the invention cannot undergo examination. To patent an invention, applicants are encouraged to claim priority by filing the application again within a year from the filing date so that the filing date is recognized as the filing date of the provisional application. Alternatively, it is possible for an applicant to submit a non-provisional application again within 14 months from the filing date of the provisional application.
With this revision, the KIPO has improved the electronic filing system to receive provisional documents in general electronic file formats including PDF, JPG, etc. with less adherence to the filing format. Therefore, applicants can submit inventions they have described in theses, research notes, etc. without any separate revisions.
This loosening of the requirements of patent applications allows research results to be filed for a patent in Korea without any hesitation, and the number of applications submitted in industrial fields is likely to increase.
Commissioner Wonju Park said “previously, many companies had difficulty securing the earliest filing date because it takes a certain amount of time to complete the application. However, with the new provisional application system, Korean companies can expedite the filing process of an invention they have developed, and thus we are looking forward to protecting innovative technology by allowing inventors to claim the benefit of the filing date of an invention filed earlier when that invention is later modified.”
※ Source: press release from KIPO