1. The 1 millionth patent registration took 62 years in Korea, but the 2 millionth patent registration took only 9 years.

Since patent registration began in 1948 in Korea, it took 62 years until the registration of the 1 millionth patent, while the 2 millionth patent registration took only 9 years, which is for a biotechnology from the company 'Orum Therapeutics' relating to suppressing tumor growth. After the first patent of 'an sulphur dye manufacturing method' was registered in Korea by the Central Research Institute (the current National Institute of Technology and Standards) in 1948, the 1 millionth patent of 'a hinge device and a mobile device using the same' was registered by Diabell Co., Ltd. in 2010. In view of this, the 2 millionth patent registration was achieved in just nine years. The rapid increase in the number of patent registrations since the 2000s is due to the transition of Korea's industrial structure from production and manufacture-oriented industries to knowledge and technology-based industries.

2. Korea Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) selected Korean trademarks as excellent such as 'ChaeSeum (채세움)'

'ChaeSeum,󰡑 which means to build or construct a house, using pure Korean, 'chae,' a unit for counting houses, was selected as an excellent trademark using Hangeul. On the 8th of this month, the KIPO selected and announced the excellent Korean trademarks for Hunminjeongeum proclamation's 573th Hangul Day. In the flood of foreign language trademarks, indiscriminate digital abbreviations, slang and informal term, excellent trademarks were selected to expand their usage by discovering beautiful Korean trademarks that are refined and easy to use. The selection was sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the National Institute of the Korean Language and performed with participation of patent customers. 'WooriAgiJounNal (우리 아기 좋은 날)' is selected as a beautiful trademark and 'ChaeSeum' is selected as a charming trademark. As friendly trademarks, 'IsulChon (이슬촌),󰡑 'WhacKkaeMyeon (확깨면),󰡑 'YeolDuip(열두잎),' 'DeowiSanyang (더위사냥)' and 'Binggrae (빙그레)' were respectively selected. A total of 90 trademarks were entered in the competition of excellent trademarks, and then the beautiful trademarks were selected by Korean specialists recommended by the National Institute of the Korean Language through the examination of the KIPO's requirements, by adding the preference votes of patent customers.

3. Trademark infringement of Korean companies in China over the past three years ... 2,136 cases and about 21.7 billion won

In the past three years, cases of occupying Korean companies' trademarks in advance without authorization have sharply increased in China.

According to data of infringement results of Korean companies' trademarks in China, received by the Korean National Assembly's Kim Gyu-hwan from the Korea Patent Office on the 20th, both the number of damages and the amount of damages have been increasing since 2016 year after year.

The number of trademark infringements was 406 in 2016, 588 in 2017, and 1,142 in 2018, which represent a total of 2,136 cases in three years. As of the end of August this year, it was 500 cases.

The amount of damages was 4.14 billion won in 2016, 5.99 billion won in 2017, and 11.64 billion won in 2018, which totals 21.77 billion won in three years based on the survey. As of August this year, it was 5.1 billion.

Thereby, the KIPO said that it is focusing on and managing brokers who have occupied more than 10 Korean trademarks in advance without authorization.

4. U.S. patent registration fee increased by about 20%

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has announced a plan to increase some of the patent fees in the Federal Gazette and is in the process of opinion collecting procedure. According to the published fee increase plan, the patent registration fee will be increased by about 20% and the registration maintenance fee will be increased by about 4% to 25% according to time period. In addition, the quick examination fee for a design will be increased by about 122%. The USPTO will complete the opinion collecting procedure by the end of September and post it in the Federal Gazette as soon as the fee increase plan is finalized. Dr. Cho, Sang-Kyu of the Korea Intellectual Property Research Institute said that, the USPTO has steadily increased patent fees to reduce the financial burden for improving the quality of examination and since the US patent fee increase will aggravate the burden of patent costs for Korean companies entering the United States, the Korean government needs to expand its policy to support filing costs in foreign countries for small and medium businesses.