In order to increase convenience for inventors, as well as to promote protection and utility of patent rights, improvements to the patent system have been proposed.


KIPO (Commissioner: JUN, Sang Woo) announced that the office submitted a revised draft of the patent law and a utility model rights law to the National Assembly on November 6th. The revised draft will be discussed in the coming regular session of the National Assembly.


Major changes contained in the draft include the following:

· The revision allows inventors postpone their submission regarding the range of patent claims until examination (no later than the disclosure date of application, about a year and a half), giving inventors sufficient time to decide the full range patent claims.

Under the current system, the range of patent claims sets the range of patent protection, and must be submitted at the time of patent application. Inventors had to define the range of protection accurately and in detail before applying for a patent.


· The revised draft requires accurate and full explanation for the invention that is consistent with the descriptions required by foreign applications. Inventors won’t have to rewrite a detailed description for future international patent application.

With the current system, the purpose, composition, and effect of invention must be described in the ‘detailed description of invention’. As inventions are becoming more diversified and complicated, inventors have difficulty describing the contents of invention in detail. The required descriptions for domestic and foreign patent application are different, making inventors write the ‘‘detailed description of invention’ again for international patent application.


· The revised draft requires that examiners explain the reason of refusal for all claims turned down during examination, allowing applicants to know why their claims have been refused. Under the new ‘examination system for each claim’, applicants can abandon or supplement claims that have been refused and reapply.
Under the current examination system, examiners don’t need to explain the reason for refusal of each claim, and applicants had difficulties understanding why a claim had been denied.


· The revised draft provides an additional opportunity of correction to the rightful person when the applicant submits proof of nullification later during the judgment for nullification. In order to resolve disputes quickly, the draft allows for change of ‘subject to be confirmed’ during the judgment for confirming the range of rights.

No similar opportunity exists under the current system.

KIPO is planning to apply provisions in the revised draft to patent applications submitted after July 1st, 2007. The plan to begin using the changes soon will benefit applicants who will be guaranteed the opportunity of acquiring patent rights such as the ‘examination system for each claim’. KIPO expects that changes can be applied in time for patent examinations after July 1st, 2007.