The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) first began work as an international searching authority (ISA) and an international preliminary examining authority (IPEA) in December 1999. In the years following, KIPO was selected as a competent ISA and IPEA by several countries, including the US in 2006. KIPO became only the second foreign patent office (following the EPO) qualified to act as both an ISA and IPEA for US international applications, which could be interpreted as international recognition of KIPO's search and examination quality.

Since KIPO became an ISA for US PCT applications, the number of PCT applications from there designating KIPO as the ISA has increased sharply (a 296.4% increase in 2007 from the previous year). Although KIPO was the 10th patent office to become an ISA by the end of 2007, KIPO was ranked fourth after the EPO, USPTO and JPO for total ISA designations.

As PCT applicants ultimately have a choice in selecting an ISA or IPEA, some of the things considered by applicants are speed of results, fees, accuracy, and relative convenience of using the particular patent office. One of KIPO's strong points is that search results are provided comparatively quicker than other patent offices, completing a majority of international search reports (99.7%) within 18 months from the priority date, compared to the EPO (75%) and USPTO (20%). KIPO's search fee is also very competitive at approximately $620 compared to the EPO (approximately $2,197) and USPTO ($1,800).

Over the years, KIPO has gained a reputation for providing high quality search results, due in part to the high education level of KIPO examiners. Of an estimated 800 patent examiners, roughly 40% have a technical PhD degree and many KIPO examiners are proficient not only in Korean, but in English and Japanese as well. KIPO's select group of PCT specialists includes 384 members (as of September 2007), drawn from a pool of senior examiners with English proficiency and excellent examination track-records. Japan being traditionally a significant PCT and domestic patent filer, and Korea experiencing an increase in the number of patent filings, especially in the electronics field, the ability to search in both Korean and Japanese is now believed to be more important than ever. KIPO examiners routinely exercise these skills in searching for Korean, English, and Japanese prior art, based on an in-house database maintained by KIPO, which includes over 124 million patents, 318 different types of non-patent documents, and several online sources.

Considering KIPO's unique ability to provide fast, low-cost, accurate, and more diverse (multi-lingual) prior art searches, it is clear that KIPO's role as the ISA of choice for PCT applicants will only increase further.

Eui Hwan Jung and Stephen T Bang

Kim & Chang
Hungkuk Life Insurance Building, 9F
226 Sinmunno 1-ga, Jongno-gu
Seoul 110-786
Korea
Tel: +822 2122 3900
Fax: +822 2122 3800
all@ip.kimchang.com
www.ip.kimchang.com