Korea has really emerged as a global technology leader in the past few decades. Patents are important to Korea for this reason. It is absolutely imperative that companies and people that rely on those companies protect their technology and market share worldwide.

The Korean Intellectual Property Office defines patents as “the highly advanced creation of technical ideas utilizing laws of nature.” Ideas, economic theories, and mathematical formulas are useful, but they cannot be patented. However, this changes when these laws are used to make “something else” and applicable to an industry. Medical practices are generally not considered but can be when separated from human beings. Examples are medical devices or methods of processing.

KIPRIS (Korea Intellectual Property Rights Information Service) is an excellent source for locating prior art and Korean patent documents. One difference between the United States and Korean patent systems is that a request may be made for examination of applications anytime within three years, or else the application is abandoned. Abandoned and rejected Korean patent applications can also be accessed and viewed on KIPRIS.

We have experience with translating documents for routine patent inquiries and confirmation of office action content. We also have handled many major translation projects involving patent prosecution documents across a wide variety of subject-matter. Generally, rush service is available for most Korean patent translation requests. We have one team for Monday to Friday, and a separate team for weekends and public holidays.