1. Korean NPE to be set up to protect the patents of domestic enterprises

Korean government will set up a Korean-style NPE (Non-Practicing Entity, patent troll) under the leadership of the Financial Services Commission by receiving investments from government-run banks, the Korean Development Bank and the Industrial Bank of Korea. According to financial circles, the government is working on the establishment of a Korean-style NPE (a corporation specializing in patents) on a scale of 300 to 400 billion won in the first half of this year through a 'task force for activating technology banking' in which six government departments (the Financial Services Commission, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the Small & Medium Business Administration, and the Presidential Council on Intellectual Property) take part. The Korean-style NPE will create royalty revenues from foreign patent companies by buying domestic and foreign patents and contribute to the protection of domestic enterprises which are preyed upon by foreign patent trolls.

2. One-click service for inquiry into patent examination in five advanced countries

The Korean Intellectual Property Office announced on the 21^st that it will launch in March this year an OPD (One Portal Dossier), an examination progress information inquiry service, whereby it is possible to inquire by one click the patent examination progress information of the intellectual property offices of the five advanced countries (IP5). The IP5 are the patent offices of Europe, America, Japan, China and Korea.

The examination progress information inquiry service will have the system development finished in December last year and undergo compatibility tests with foreign patent offices. With the start of this service, anyone can view not only the patent applications of the IP5 countries but also the documents for application to registration of the cross-application forms filed with the IP5 offices as well as for decisions on registration.

3. Korea recorded the world 5^th rank last year in the number PCT patent applications for four years in a row

KISTEP announced on the 25^th that Korea ranked world 5^th in the number of PCT patent applications of WIPO under the UN, with 12,386 applications in 2013.

By country, America kept the number one position with 57,239 (27.9%) and Japan took the number two position with 43,918 (21.4%). China, which ranked 4^th in 2012, recorded the third position with 21,516, an increase of 15.6% over the previous year. Germany had their number of patent applications decrease to 4^th position with 17,927.

By company, Panasonic had the most with 2,839, followed by ZTE with 2,309, Huawei with 2,110, Qualcomm with 2,050, and Intel with 1,871. In domestic enterprises, LG Electronics recorded 13^th with 1,198 and Samsung Electronics 15^th with 1,178.

4. Korea ranked first in the world in R&D investment compared to economy

According to the 'Korea's Capital Stock Final Estimation (1970 - 2012)' by the Bank of Korea and Statistics Korea, Korea's R&D investment scale in 2012 is 6^th in the world with 49 billion dollars, following America with 454 billion dollars, Japan with 199 billion dollars, China with 163 billion dollars, Germany with 102 billion dollars, and France with 60 billion dollars. However, it is still no more than one ninth of that of America.

But compared to GDP, Korea ranks top in the world with 4.03%. In this figure, other countries are all lower than Korea, with America 2.79%, Germany 2.98%, and Japan 3.35%. The top position in the ratio compared to GDP was also attained in 2013. Following such a trend, the intellectual property product contribution rate in the capital service quantity increase was no more than 3.9% in the 1970s, but it reached 24.6% in 2012 after 7.2% in 1980s and 12.5% in the 1990s.

5. Korea Intellectual Property Tribunal lowers the threshold of design examination