Amendments to the Patent Law in South Korea

For applications submitted on or after April 20, the updated Patent Act establishes a new mechanism under which, in the event that the final rejection is upheld, the applicant may remove the claims that have not yet been finally rejected from the application and file them independently. According to the prior version, even if one claim in an appeal against a final denial was dismissed, all other claims would also be collectively rejected.

Extension of time to appeal a decision that has been finalized

The deadline for filing an appeal after receiving a preliminary rejection for not meeting grant requirements has been increased from 30 days to three months.

As is already permitted for overseas applicants, the three-month response period may be further extended by an additional sixty days. Extensions of applications are subject to the deadline for submitting a request for reexamination. A request for re-examination for an accepted application may be submitted under the updated Patent Act prior to registration. Additionally, the timeframe for submitting a request for re-examination of an application that has been ultimately rejected has been extended to three months, matching the timeframe for submitting an appeal.

Additionally, new chances to modify the specification after allowance—including the potential to pursue a greater claim scope—are made accessible under the amended Patent Act. However, a request for the re-examination invalidates the notice of approval.

Simplified Divisional Application Priority Claim Process

Once a priority is asserted and a certified copy of the priority document is legitimately presented for the parent application, it is assumed that the same has been done for any and all divisional applications derived from that application.

The term “a cause not attributable to the applicant or patentee” has been changed by the Korean Intellectual Property Office to “a justifiable cause,” enabling applicants to request the restoration within two months of the justifiable cause ceasing to exist.

Co-owners of patents are protected

A co-owner of a patent who used the invention but lost their share later as a result of another co-owner filing a court petition for the division of a co-owned patent is now permitted to acquire a non-exclusive license of the patent right.

Extension of applications based on patent applications that are subject to a priority claim

An applicant can now assert domestic priority based on an accepted application within a year of the accepted application’s filing date before it is registered.

An invention may be enhanced in response to market conditions; in this situation, the applicant may submit a patent application that includes the improved invention even after receiving the notice of permission while claiming domestic priority.

After carefully examining the amendments made by the modified Patent Act, it is obvious that the aforementioned changes were made to protect the right of applicants, expand the chances for obtaining patent rights, and reduce the administrative formality of the processes.