South Korea: revised Patent Act

The amendments to the South Korean Patent Act took effect on March 1, 2017.

The revised Patent Act introduces the following significant changes:

1. The period for requesting substantive examination has been shortened from 5 years from the filing date (international filing date in case of entry into the Korean PCT national phase) to 3 years. The new term is applied to applications/international applications filed on and after March 1, 2017.

2. Ex-officio re-examination system has been introduced. If any obvious grounds for rejection are found within the period between issuance of the Notice of Allowance and registration of a patent, a patent examiner may cancel the decision to grant a patent and start re-examination. The provision applies to the applications the decision on which is issued after the entry into force of the revised Act.

3. Ex-officio amendment system has been revised. Under the new Patent Act, ex-officio amendments include not only typographical errors but also obvious errors.

4. Post-grant opposition system has been re-introduced. Any party is entitled to file a grounded request to cancel a patent registration within a six-month period from the publication of the patent registration. The reasons for filing such a request include lack of novelty and/or inventive step.

5. During examination of a patent application claiming conventional priority of a prior application a patent examiner may now ask the applicant to provide examination results issued by the examiner of the office of the priority application.

For more information on patent registration in South Korea and other countries of your interest, please visit our brief applicant’s guide. We also welcome you to get an actual quote for patent, trademark, and design registration via IP-Coster quotation system.

Author: Lynda Miller