USPTO & Korean Intellectual Property Office’s New Pilot Program on Classifications of Patents: Korean IP Law Updates

The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) officially announced a Pilot Program in which KIPO will classify patent documents with the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC).  We congratulate KIPO for this bold and progressive move.   

The system is managed by the European Patent Office (EPO) and the USPTO.   The system created over 250,000 classification based on the International Patent Classification system.  The benefit of the new system is that it allows a search worldwide based on these standard classifications.  For those doing prior art searches (yes – I am forced to do this on occasion) – harmonization of classification systems is warmly welcomed. 

For an understanding of the CPC classification system please take a look at the CPC’s execellent website at:  Cooperative Patent Classification. 
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Sean Hayes may be contacted at: SeanHayes@ipglegal.com.

Sean Hayes is co-chair of the Korea Practice Team and Entertainment, Media and New Tech Law Team at IPG Legal. He is the first non-Korean attorney to have worked for the Korean court system (Constitutional Court of Korea) and one of the first non-Koreans to be a regular member of a Korean law faculty. He assists clients in their contentious, non-contentious and business developments needs in Korea and China.

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