Patent examination processing also requires a diet.[기고/김완기]｜Dong-A Ilbo

Kim Wan-ki, Director of the Korean Intellectual Property Office It is easy for people to gain weight in the fall, the season of high fever, and many people devote themselves to dieting as if it were an annual event. Weight is a representative indicator of the body’s health, and this indicator is also included in patent examination. It is the patent examination processing period. Just as body weight increases when the amount of food consumed exceeds the metabolic rate, the processing period increases when the volume of patent applications exceeds the amount of examination processing. The same principle applies in the opposite case. Also, a diet is necessary when the processing period increases. If the processing period increases, companies will not be able to make decisions at the right time, which will raise a red flag for the health of the industry, such as missing the investment period.

However, unlike body weight, the treatment period is a very big constraint on diet. The amount of patent applications cannot be controlled like the amount of food, so dieting is not possible, and the only way is to increase metabolism, that is, to increase examination throughput. At this time, how to increase the screening throughput must be carefully decided. This is because past patent examination diets ultimately experienced a yo-yo effect. The two diets so far have reached the target treatment period of about 10 months over 4 to 5 years. The method was simple. The amount of processing per examiner has drastically increased. If you compare it to dieting, it means increasing the amount of exercise. Just as excessive exercise takes a toll on the body, the excessive increase in review processing has side effects such as weakening review quality, lower job satisfaction, and burnout. Recently, due to the increase in patent applications, the processing period has increased, so it is time to go on a diet again. What is different from the last diet is that the cause is analyzed and a two-track approach is taken to prevent the yo-yo effect.

The recent increase in patent applications is led by high-tech strategic industries such as semiconductors, secondary batteries, and bio. These applications are difficult to review because they are cutting-edge technology. This means that it takes a lot of time to review one case. In terms of food, it is a high-calorie food, and in order to digest it, the immediate effect is to increase core muscles, which consume a lot of calories. Paying attention to this, the Korean Intellectual Property Office has designated these fields as priority examination targets and is intensively increasing the number of examiners. So far, we have added 105 people in the semiconductor and secondary battery fields, and we plan to hire 60 people in the bio, advanced robot, and artificial intelligence fields next year. Like detox, which removes toxins from the body while strengthening core muscles, the patent examination system also improves physical constitution. We aim to gradually and steadily increase processing capacity, which is the basic amount of patent examination, by eliminating unnecessary parts and increasing the efficiency of the process by incorporating AI technology. In order to prevent a weakening of review quality, a side effect of concern, we plan to create an environment in which more effort is put into quality control starting from the team leader level.

People who have succeeded in dieting commonly recommend long-term physical improvement and regular exercise rather than short-term rapid weight loss. The same goes for the processing period. In the past, the goal was reached in a short period of time, but it was difficult to respond immediately as the processing period increased again due to side effects. As maintaining a stable processing period helps companies establish patent strategies, we will pursue a balanced policy to shorten the processing period without a yo-yo effect.

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Kim Wan-ki, Commissioner of the Korean Intellectual Property Office

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