The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) is planning to expand eligibility for preferential examinations and to introduce a delayed examination system that enables customers to choose and manage the examination schedule for their patent applications. Instead of having a uniformly shortened patent examination time, customers will be able to choose a fast, normal or slow examination.
We will expand the scope of eligibility for accelerated examinations.
Anyone who submits a prior art search report from an authorized organization will be eligible for an accelerated examination. Only reports from authorized organizations will be accepted because those reports are assured of meeting our required standards.
- Accelerated examinations are expected to be started within 2.2 months of the application date.
Regular examinations will be conducted within a reasonable period.
By setting an appropriate target of 16 months, we aim to prevent regular examinations from being excessively prolonged.
We will introduce a system whereby customers can request that an examination be delayed in accordance with their preferences.
The completion date can be estimated with more exactitude for a delayed examination than for a regular examination. Furthermore, delayed examinations will be more economical to administer than accelerated examinations.
(Note: An applicant can request a delay at the time of submitting an examination request or anytime in the six months after the examination request. The applicant has a choice of specifying the commencement of an examination at any time in the period between one year and six months from the date of the examination request and five years from the filing date. The examination will commence on or after the specified time but no later than three months from the specified time.)
We plan to implement the system in September 2008.
We will rapidly promote the revision of the relevant legislation and attend to the maintenance of the system.
Obtained from the website of KIPO (http://www.kipo.go.kr/kpo/eng); Posted on July 2, 2008
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