[Patent Talk] Obtaining Patents Quickly Through Accelerated Examination

This is a column contributed by our patent attorney Taeyoung Lee to Etoday on August 3, 2021. It discusses the accelerated examination system for obtaining patent registration quickly.

[Patent Talk] Obtaining Patents Quickly Through Accelerated Examination

Whether a patent will be granted is typically decided about two years after filing. At the earliest it takes about a year and a half, and if there are grounds for rejection and KIPO issues a notice of preliminary rejection, it can take two and a half to three years. For large corporations, whether a patent is granted may not greatly affect the business, but for startups it often determines the fate of the business.

Startups should make active use of accelerated examination. Under this system, KIPO examines an application especially quickly if certain requirements are met. A request for accelerated examination involves additional cost, but because it lets applicants learn whether their patent will be granted within about a year, many individuals and startups use it.

There are various eligibility grounds for accelerated examination, but the most common are: ① a patent application by a company holding a venture business certificate; ② a patent application for which it is proven that the invention is being worked or prepared for working; and ③ a patent application for which a prior art search has been commissioned from a specialized search institution. In practice, we review these grounds in order, and if the applicant has no venture business certificate and is neither working nor preparing to work the invention, we proceed by commissioning a search from a specialized institution.

In May, KIPO announced that for requests for accelerated examination filed after June 23, 2021 on the ground of a prior art search by a specialized institution, the deadline for commencing accelerated examination would be extended from four months to eight months from the decision to grant accelerated examination. This reflects considerations of fairness relative to the other grounds and of the examination backlog.

Note that the deadline for commencing accelerated examination is currently four months from the decision to grant accelerated examination for grounds ① and ②, and eight months for ground ③. If you want a quick registration within a year, grounds ① and ② are far more advantageous. Often, even though ground ② could be proven...

(Please click the link below for the full article.)

LNB IP Law Firm