At 11:00 AM on Thursday, April 27th 2006, Commissioner JUN, Sang Woo of KIPO held the 4th Korea/Germany Commissioners’ Meeting with President Dr. Jürgen Schade of the German Patent & Trademark Office in the Conference Room of Multimedia Center, KIPO. Both leaders agreed to cooperate to increase the patent quality of both countries, and they agreed to interchange 2 patent examiners each year in a preceding technology survey starting the second half of this year.


Their meeting was a follow-up measure for the cooperation agreement made between the two patent offices in the 3rd Korea/Germany Commissioners’ Meeting held in Munich, Germany last June. In this year’s meeting, an agreement for the number of examiners to be interchanged and the method for interchange were detailed. Currently, Korea is executing mutual preceding technology surveys with the patent offices of Japan and China, while Germany is executing surveys with Japan and England.


In addition to geographical proximity, such as between Korea and Japan or China, this meeting shows that the German patent office, with 130 years of tradition, values the high patent quality of Korea, agreeing to a practical interchange of patent examiners. The capacity of Korean intellectual property has once again been recognized globally.

Around the world, Korea ranks 4th in industrial property applications and 6th in PCT international applications. In 2005, the US patent office appointed KIPO as the International Searching Authority (ISA) and the International Preliminary Examining Authority (IPEA), and in October of the same year, Korean patent documents were selected as Minimum Document in the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). Last March, KIPO’s International Intellectual Property Training Institute (IIPTI) was designated as WIPO’s formal training institute for the first time in the world. Looking at these international outcomes, the capacity of Korean intellectual property has once again been recognized globally through this agreement with Germany.


Both commissioners (presidents) exchanged comprehensive opinions on cooperative measures related to trademark/design areas, cooperation among patent offices of the three Northeastern countries, and increased and expanded awareness towards intellectual property in their countries.


Starting this May, KIPO is changing into a responsible operation agency. Through the examiners’ interchange agreement with the German patent office, the world’s patent leader in legislation, chemical and medicine, KIPO is expected to accomplish its goal of securing the world’s top quality in examination/judgment.