[Patent Talk] Examination Keeps Getting Slower: KIPO Must Substantially Expand Its Examiner Workforce

In an interview with the press in early July, Lee In-sil, who took office as Commissioner of KIPO in May this year, announced a plan to hire at least 200 semiconductor examiners every year to address the shortage, adding 1,000 examiners over the next five years. Shortly afterward, however, the government announced its policy of reducing the number of public officials, and earlier this month the Commissioner announced that, in line with the government's policy, agreement had been reached to hire 67 retired semiconductor researchers as examiners next year.

The reduction in the number of public officials was one of President Yoon Suk-yeol's campaign pledges and is intended to make the civil service run more efficiently. Opinions on this issue vary according to the interests of the various stakeholders, and since big government has its own problems, a government that aims for a smaller one surely has its reasons. If, however, the increase in KIPO examiners is not achieved in time because of this policy, serious problems can be expected in terms of national competitiveness.

In my recent practice, I have felt firsthand that examination of IP applications is taking longer and longer. For patents, the first examination result, which used to issue around 18 months after filing, is now being delayed to about two years, and for trademarks, there are more and more cases in which the first examination result, which used to issue around one year after filing, is delayed to about 18 months. This is because, although Korea is one of the IP5 and IP filings increased even during the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of examiners has not grown significantly. As of June 23 last year, KIPO extended the deadline for starting accelerated examination from four months to eight months "where accelerated examination is requested after commissioning a prior art search from a specialized agency," but the examination backlog remains.

Even under these difficult conditions, KIPO has recently introduced a three-examiner panel examination system to improve examination quality. It has also changed its work processes to minimize examiners' non-examination duties: it introduced "focused examination hours," during which telephone interviews are discouraged, and designated a representative telephone number for each examination division, through which a staff member relays inquiries to the examiner. Applicants, however, are concerned that the complicated procedure for interviewing examiners will delay their responses to rejections.

Last year, the number of patent applications examined per examiner per year was 69 in the United States, whereas in Korea it was ...