The Park Geun-hye administration’s slogan of creative economy may become a solution to the problems faced by the global community, such as low employment and stalled economic growth, according to the Korean Intellectual Property Office.

“The idea of creative economy aims at building up the economic environment so that creativity and innovation will be easily realized in the market,” said KIPO commissioner Kim Young-min at the 51st general assembly of the World Intellectual Property Organization held in Geneva last week.

This consequently boosts the importance of the protection of intellectual property, the KIPO chief said.

“Under such new economic paradigm change, we endeavor to reinforce the intellectual property ecosystem and accelerate a value chain connecting ideas to business activities.”

In step with the new paradigm, the KIPO set to enhancing its examination quality and shortening the waiting periods, as to provide faster and stronger protection for the outcomes of innovative activities, Kim also said.

“With an increased number of examiners and a wider range of educational activities, we aim to shorten the current examination pending periods to 10 months for patents and three months for trademarks by 2017,” he said.

A smart search system and a direct communication channel between examiners and applicants, too, will be established in order to simplify the processes.

Kim stressed the importance of work-sharing, as displayed in the IP5 framework, a cross-border cooperation project to unify the workflow standard in the global top five patent offices and help them share the search results.

The system will especially optimize the efficiency of the “Patent Prosecution Highway,” which allows an applicant a faster examination process, in case he or she has already won the same patent in another country.

“So far, the PPH has only been active in bilateral ties but, from next January, it will take effect in all of the IP5 countries,” Kim said.

“Korea will greatly benefit from the change, as Korean companies are strong in intellectual property development.”

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)