1. According to the result of the examination quality satisfaction survey by the Korean Intellectual Property Office, "Quality is more important than speed"

According to the Korean Intellectual Property Office on the 17th, 36 items in the patent field and 10 items in the trademark/design field were investigated for multiple applicants and agents from June to December 2021. Respondents included 306 applicants in the patent field, 52 representatives, and 304 applicants in the trademark and design field, 50 representatives. The organizer is KDN Research.

As a result of the survey, in the question of ‘satisfaction with the overall examination quality’, the patent field scored 68.8 points, a slight decrease from 69.7 points in 2020. On the other hand, the trademark and design sector scored 72.9 points, slightly up from 69.1 points in 2020.

In the question of 'Which of the Korean Intellectual Property Office and other foreign patent offices has the better examination service for respondents with overseas application experience,' 87.6% answered that the Korean examination service is better, compared to 77.3% in 2020. It was 10.3%p higher.

Reasons for thinking that the Korean Intellectual Property Office's examination service was superior were △fast examination speed △faithful prior art research △easy-to-understand notice. The continuous improvement of administrative services by the Korean Intellectual Property Office through user-centered active administration seems to have led to good evaluations.

2. Strengthen competitiveness by establishing a foundation for regional intellectual property-related organizations

The Korean Intellectual Property Office announced on the 9th that it will establish an intellectual property policy led by local governments and prepare a foundation through legislation so that it can be implemented according to its characteristics.

Korea is regarded as an intellectual property powerhouse leading the IP5, a consultative body between patent offices of five countries (Korea, US, China, Japan, Europe) that account for more than 80% of global patent applications.

This was possible because the national intellectual property policy was systematically established. On the other hand, from a regional perspective, interest in intellectual property is low and there is no entity to lead the policy.

Recently, the occurrence of intellectual property damage such as trademark infringement by local small business owners has increased, but the case of not responding appropriately reflects this well.

Accordingly, the Korean Intellectual Property Office plans to create a basis for local governments to establish and implement intellectual property policies based on legal grounds.

3. Korea ranks fourth in the world for international patent applications… Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics 3rd~4th place

The Korean Intellectual Property Office announced on the 14th that Korean companies' international patent applications (PCT applications) to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in 2021 recorded 26,678, an increase of 3.2% compared to 2020, ranking fourth in the world for the second year in a row.

PCT applications in Japan and Germany in 2021 decreased by 0.6% and 6.4%, respectively, compared to the previous year, while China and the United States increased only 0.9% and 1.9%, respectively. The number of PCT applications is used as a measure to evaluate each country's innovation capability.

According to the Korean Intellectual Property Office, worldwide PCT applications in 2021 were 277,500, an increase of 0.9% from the previous year, and China filed 69,540 applications, ranking first in the world for three consecutive years.

By company, Huawei filed 6952 applications, ranking first in the world for PCT filings for five consecutive years from 2017, while Qualcomm, the second-largest company, had the highest application growth rate (80%) among the top 10 companies.

Among the top 10 PCT filing companies, Samsung Electronics ranked 3rd in the world with 3,041 cases in Korea, followed by LG Electronics with 2885 cases and 4th place.

In addition, Korea showed remarkable growth in the number of applications in Madrid (WIPO international trademark applications) last year, with a total of 1973 applications, ranking 11th in the world.

4. The U.S. and EU agree to exempt patent rights for COVID-19 vaccine... Pharmaceutical companies protest

The four World Trade Organization (WTO) member states - the United States, the European Union (EU), India and South Africa - heard the news of a tentative agreement on the exemption of intellectual property rights (IP) for the COVID-19 vaccine. The Association (IFPMA) reported that the agreement was criticized as “a measure that could weaken our ability to cope with crisis”.

This agreement contains the content that the intellectual property necessary for the production and supply of the COVID-19 vaccine will be used without the consent of the right holder to the extent necessary to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.

This exemption is only available to WTO member countries that accounted for less than 10% of global COVID-19 vaccine exports last year. China is likely to be excluded, and India, which has not exported vaccines for much of last year, could benefit, Reuters reported. In addition, it includes only the COVID-19 vaccine and does not apply to COVID-19 treatment.

For this agreement to be formally adopted, all 164 member states of the WTO must agree. They also need to agree on how many years the exemption period will be. The agreement suggests a period of 3 to 5 years for the exemption. However, it is unlikely that an agreement will be easily reached due to opposition from global pharmaceutical companies.