- KIPO starts an online service providing information on material patents -


Starting this September, KIPO (Commissioner: JUN, Sang Woo) is planning to launch an online service that provides information on material patents, after their exclusive rights have expired. This information will be provided to related industries such as drug companies.

Material patents are given to chemically manufactured materials, such as medicines and agrichemicals, as well as to biologically manufactured materials, such as microbes and proteins. They serve as source technologies in the fields of pharmacy, biotechnology, agrichemicals, and polymer chemistry <See Attachment 1>.


The number of material patents in Korea is 6,192. Among these, 3,196 (52%) are related to the medical field, 1,200 (19%) to the biotechnological field, 484 (8%) to the agrichemical field, and 369 (6%) to the plastics field. 4,083 (64%) of these material patents are owned by foreigners, including major foreign drug companies <See Attachment 2>.


Rather than focusing on the development of new materials that require massive investments, many domestic drug companies concentrate on making improved materials (for example, improved medicine) or copied products (for example, generic), that can create high value-added in a short period of time with a relatively small investment. These types of materials and products have often raised patent disputes with major foreign drug companies that hold material patents.


One of the reasons for frequent disputes related to improved medicine or generics is the lack of information on material patents that are held by foreign drug companies. Until now, domestic drug companies had a difficult time collecting information during their development of improved medicine and generics.


※ Improved medicine is a product with improved effects or changed/extended applications. It is made by an improvement process, such as changing the structure or state of a previous medicine, or combining 2 or more medicines. Generic medicine is a product having the same effect/quality as the previous medicine. It is made by using disclosed information on technology/ingredients, after the patent for source materials has expired.


To check information related to material patents held by foreign drug companies, domestic drug companies first had to know some information about the patent, such as the patent number, before accessing the patent technology information service provided by Korea Institute of Patent Information (KIPI). Then, they had to search information on the patent expiration date in the patent registration list for each material patent.


This year is the 20th anniversary of Korea’s introducing the material patent system. Considering that the effective period for a patent is 20 years, many material patents are expected to expire this year.,


KIPO is planning to launch an online service that routinely provides integrated information on material patents, including the details of patent (abstract, representative claims), expiration date, and product name, to more than 100 related companies. The online service will allow domestic drug companies convenient collection of related information in order to analyze and effectively use expired patents.
<See Attachment 3 >


In addition to information on the KIPO homepage, this information will also be posted on the homepages of other related agencies (for example, the Korea Health Industry Development Institute), an agency that entered a cooperative agreement with KIPO. Anyone will be able to see information on material patents that are about to be expired.


This information service on material patents is expected to increase the efficiency of R&D activities within domestic drug companies. It is also expected to prevent unnecessary patent disputes related to improved medicines and generic products.