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New projects launched or resumed this year in the context of the policies and plans mentioned above, short description: aims, partners, tasks
Smart Examination System (April to December 2015)
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This aims to build a next-generation search system for patents and utility models which can bring exact search results so as to improve the quality of examination. Related tasks are 1) to improve the search performance by employing next generation search engine, 2) to provide extended search results by linking search functionalities, 3) to increase the search quality through high quality information, and 4) to eventually implement optimized and customized search environment for KIPO examiners.
Main areas of patent information activities and related information and communication technology (ICT) practices which were in the focus of attention last year
Statistics: changes in terms of application filings and grants with respect to previous year; trends or areas experiencing rapid changes
The changes in filings/grants for patents/utility models in 2015, compared to 2014, are as follow:
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Information and support provided by the Office to applicants regarding filing on paper and/or e-filing (instructions, seminars, etc.) - URLs
To integrate scattered counseling resources and promptly provide technical advice, the Customer Service Center was established in March 2002. Its main services are on the following issues:
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All patent and utility model applications filed at KIPO are made available in electronic format for its administrative processing including examination, publication, and trial. In 2015, 98.3 percent of the total patent applications and 90.1 percent of the total utility model applications were filed online via the e-filing portal mentioned above. The rest of such applications which were filed in paper are also digitalized in electronic format, along with all the other application-related documents including amendments and intermediate documents. This digitalization process employs multi-OCR, dual key input, automatic verification and color scanning. In 2015, 3510 patent applications and 859 utility model applications were digitalized.
Classification1, preclassification2 (if applicable), reclassification3 activities; classification systems used (e.g., International Patent Classification (IPC)); matters concerning indexing of patent information
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Information products and patent document collections (coverage, medium, etc.) available to external users, conditions of access (e.g., free of charge, subscription, etc.)
Legal status information (kind of information, coverage, medium, etc.)
Other sources
IV. ICT SUPPORT TO SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO PATENT INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Specific software tools supporting business procedures within the Office: general description, characteristics, advantages, possible improvements
Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office
Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources
Establishment and maintenance of electronic search file: file building, updating, storage, documents from other offices included in the search file
Administrative management electronic systems (register, legal status, statistics, and administrative support)
Other matters
V. PROMOTION ACTIVITIES AIMED TO SUPPORT USERS IN ACCESS AND EFFICIENT USE OF PATENT INFORMATION
Patent library: equipment, collection management, network of patent libraries in the country, cooperation with foreign patent libraries
Publications related to different business procedures and patent information sources available to users, for example, books, brochures, Internet publications, etc.
Office's initiatives on providing foreign patent information in the local language(s) (e.g., machine translation tools, translation of abstracts)
Cooperation with universities, research centers, technology and innovation support centers, etc.
Education and training: training courses, e-learning modules (URLs), seminars, exhibitions, etc.
Other activities
VI. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF PATENT INFORMATION
International exchange and sharing of patent information in machine-readable form, e.g., priority documents, bibliographic data, abstracts, search reports, full text information
Participation in international or regional activities and projects related to patent information
Assistance to developing countries
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Korea Industrial Property Rights Information Service (KIPRIS)
Since January 2001, domestic IPR information (including KPAs) has been offered free-of-charge through the Korea Industrial Property Rights Information Service (KIPRIS), which is available at http://www.kipris.or.kr. The service covers published patent and utility model applications in PDF (including the SGML-formatted publications before July 2001), and up-to-date information on the administrative progress of applications, including grant and trial related information. It also provides bibliographic data and full texts from Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, the United States of America, and WIPO, as well as abstracts from Taiwan and Russia (extracted from DOCDB). For foreign users, the English version of KIPRIS offers a real-time machine translation service for the full texts of Korean patents and utility models into English. Chinese, English, and Japanese to Korean machine translation services are also available to Korean domestic users. In addition, it offers searches for registration for an extension of patent term and intermediate documents such as office action and decision of grant or rejection, IP-NAVI (for international disputes), standard technologies (3GPP and IETF), lapsed patents, super citation documents, and CPC searches for patents from the EPO and USPTO. In 2015, KIPRIS was enhanced with the additions of the following features:
- Searches of state-owned patents and substance patents;
- Searches by sentence and the latest owner’s name of patents and utility models;
- Copy & Paste of search results from KIPRIS to SNS such as Twitter and Facebook; and
- Linking to OPD service, which aims to share the information on examination progress of family patent applications
KIRPISPlus (http://plus.kipris.or.kr)
KIRPISPlus is a fee-based search service via an Open API targeting web service users, which was launched in September 2012. It offers a total of 64 types of data products including information on deadline, thesaurus, classification, KPA bibliographic data, IPC-KSIC classification mapping, DocDB and legal status to 52 domestic and foreign IP service providers such as WIPS, Markpro, and Wisdomain. In 2015, in particular, it added services for substance patents which are to be terminated soon, much-cited prior art, state-owned patents, intermediate documents, Japanese standardized data, and patent publications from Mexico and Philippines.
Legal status information (kind of information, coverage, medium, etc.)
KIPO’s legal status information is made available at KIRPISPlus, mentioned above. Such information can be identified with 148 kinds of legal status codes and 234 types of event codes, and is updated every two weeks. Legal status codes represent the administrative progress of an application, while the event codes represent the ground for such legal statuses, for example, receipt and dispatch of documents. Some examples of such legal status codes are ‘application to register extension of patent right term by permission,’ ‘application to register an extension for term of patent right due to registration delay,’ ‘request for examination,’ ‘request for registration of extension of term of patent right,’ ‘request for preferential examination,’ ‘maintenance of original decision after re-examination before a trial,’ ‘decision to grant registration after re-examination before a trial,’ etc. As of the end of 2015, it had a database pertaining to 2.6 million documents of patent and 0.1 million documents of utility model.
Other sources
IV. ICT SUPPORT TO SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO PATENT INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Specific software tools supporting business procedures within the Office: general description, characteristics, advantages, possible improvements
There are a total of 4122 software applications to support KIPO’s business procedures such as search, examination, registration, and trial in 175 types of the five groups, as below:
• System software: 12 types (i.e., DBMS, web server, middleware)
• Package software: 41 types (including PMS, BPM, electronic approval system, Call Center, DW, messenger, career development management system, Homepage portal, DQM, etc.)
• Security software: 52 types (firewall, invasion detection/protection, DRM, integrated certificates, DB security, personal information protection tool, etc.)
• Management software: 13 types (back-up tool, performance management tool, batch scheduler, etc.)
• Others: 57 types (search engine, drawing viewer, OCR, PDF converter)
Maintenance for system software mentioned above is conducted by a separate governmentally-integrated center, while the other software is managed by KIPO headquarters.
For databases, performance tests and recovery practice tests are regularly conducted with support from DB-related agencies. In addition, introduction and upgrades of system software such as DBMS, web servers and middleware help the KIPOnet system’s performance and functionality to be continuously improved. In order to protect personal information and prevent unpublished patent information, state-of-the-art security patches are applied to such software.
Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office
• Server: 52 UNIX Enterprise servers, 111 NT servers, and 145 Linux servers
• Storage equipment: 38 Storage(2630 terabytes), 18 SANs
• Peripherals: 6 backup devices, 2 jukeboxes
In 2015, the following activities were conducted for the sake of stabilization and improvement of hardware performance:
- 19 times of preventive exercise to respond to complex system hazard;
- Upgrade of old OS such as Windows Server 2003;
- Timely support for development of the Smart Examination System through relocation of idle servers;
- Simplification of infrastructure and reduction of operational costs by modifying network architecture;
- Extension of the IT Center to solve overpopulation of IT equipment; and
- Expansion to 13 terabytes for the foreign common documentation database
Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources
The patent and utility model database, created from applications, has been continuously updated and refined for search purposes. It includes bibliographic data (1983-1998), publications of applications (1983- ), publications of grants (1948- ), and KPAs (1979- ). Such data is provided in different formats depending on the time of creation and publication, such as image, SGML or XML.
External sources are available on the non-patent literature search system via NDSL or an API linked to traditional knowledge database. They include ScienceDirect, IEEE, CA data, and 17 academic database such as ACS, OSA, Science, Nature, Wiley-online, Springer, AIP, APS, IOP, ASPB, OUP, MSL, RSC, Westlaw and LwanB, DBPIA, KISS, STN, and 12 individual online journals including JJAP, BCSJ, and PNAS.
Establishment and maintenance of electronic search file: file building, updating, storage, documents from other offices included in the search file
File building and updating
Search file is comprised of domestic data based on applications and foreign data collected from other offices. Such foreign data is parsed for the sake of classification and refinement and uploaded on the search database after error verification. As part of an effort to keep or improve the quality of such data, data architecture and data value are prioritized. Data architecture administers naming rules for logic and physical names, data type, data length so that they can prevent confusion of terminology usage and improve data reusability, and system efficiency. From the perspective of data value, business rules are continuously created along with the regular measurements of data value. Finally, data with errors which occur in the process of administrative or business procedures are corrected after consultation with the departments involved.
Smart Data Quality Management System
For better data verification and refinement, KIPO continued to improve the smart data quality management system by expanding business rules for error verification from 5936 in 2014 to 6535 in 2015, and refining 8.8 million patent/utility model documents through data ownership. In 2015, a user manual for the data flow management system was built in 2015 and training courses were offered to staff members of KIPO affiliated organizations, along with related materials such as brochure and instructions.
Foreign data included in the search system
Documents from other offices included in the search file are the same as the overseas data under the section, “Information products and patent document collections (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external collections and databases,” above.
Administrative management electronic systems (register, legal status, statistics, and administrative support)
Other matters
V. PROMOTION ACTIVITIES AIMED TO SUPPORT USERS IN ACCESS AND EFFICIENT USE OF PATENT INFORMATION
Patent library: equipment, collection management, network of patent libraries in the country, cooperation with foreign patent libraries
IP Digital Library
The IP Digital Library archives patent documents, such as bibliographic data, abstracts and full texts, in a variety of media such as paper, microform, CD-ROM and DVD-ROM. The documents are obtained through exchange agreements with 18 countries and 4 international organizations, including the EPO, USPTO, and WIPO. The library also has non-patent literature (some of which has been donated, while others were purchased), comprising of over 36,091 volumes and 546 kinds of periodicals related to science and technology, and CD-ROMs of annual reports and statistics. The collections are arranged according to their category and volume number. KIPO examiners and the public are allowed access to this collection. The electronic database is provided at the Internet corner of the IP Digital Library. The library also offers original copies of electronic materials, such as electronic journals and e-books mentioned above.
Network of patent libraries in the country
KIPO has shared IP related publications and information with:
• The Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information through DDS (Document Delivery Service) for complimentary or subscription-based materials and through the NDSL (National Digital Science Library) service which provides access to the academic theses and scientific journals of 722 domestic libraries and information centers
• The National Assembly Library since 2002 on over 7.67 million volumes of theses, government publications, seminar materials and books
• The Korea Education & Research Information Service through RISS (Research Information Sharing Service).
Publications related to different business procedures and patent information sources available to users, for example, books, brochures, Internet publications, etc.
• Business procedures (filing, publication, examination, grant, opposition, appeal, etc.): http://www.kipo.go.kr/kpo/user.tdf?a=user.english.html.HtmlApp&c=92000&catmenu=ek03_01_01
Office's initiatives on providing foreign patent information in the local language(s) (e.g., machine translation tools, translation of abstracts)
To serve its examiners and the general public, KIPO has developed its Machine Translation (MT) services-—Japanese to Korean (J2K), English to Korean (E2K), Korean to English (K2E) and Chinese to Korean (C2K) MT services —and provided such services on the respective search systems called KOMPASS and KIPRIS. However, the K2E service is unavailable to examiners. Those MT services are based on the employment of dictionaries, translation memory (TM) and translation patterns of the respective bilingual words matches. In addition, KIPO also conducts MT quality evaluation on a regular basis. As of the end of 2015, each service is supplemented with:
- E2K: 3.9 million terminologies, 60 thousand TM, and ten thousand translation patterns;
- J2K: 2 million terminologies, 30 thousand TM;
- K2E: 3.7 million terminologies, 10 thousand TM; and
- C2K: 1.1 million terminologies, 10 thousand TM
Cooperation with universities, research centers, technology and innovation support centers, etc.
Education and training: training courses, e-learning modules (URLs), seminars, exhibitions, etc.
Other activities
VI. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF PATENT INFORMATION
International exchange and sharing of patent information in machine-readable form, e.g., priority documents, bibliographic data, abstracts, search reports, full text information
Data acquisition and uploading
Bibliographic data and/or full text from 53 offices (or organizations) mentioned in the above section “Information products and patent document collections (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external collections and databases” are collected through mutual data exchange or purchased at a marginal cost for internal use. Such data is uploaded onto KIPO’s search system after data verification procedures and family data building based on DocDB.
KIPO’s data provision
KIPO has provided its official gazettes to 11 foreign IP offices including EPO and WIPO and 12 domestic entities. It also offers KPAs to 49 foreign IP offices such as the JPO, SIPO, and the USPTO and seven international organizations, on either CD or s-FTP on a monthly basis.
Exchange of priority documents
KIPO has exchanged priority documents with the EPO, JPO, and USPTO using the Trilateral Document Access (TDA). The number of priority documents exchanged via TDA in 2015 was 4292 between KIPO-EPO, 8190 between KIPO-JPO, 9271 between KIPO-SIPO, and 68.242 between KIPO-USPTO. In addition, KIPO has also exchanged priority documents with AU, DK, ES, FI, GB, SE, and IL through WIPO Digital Access Service (DAS) since July 2009.
Dissemination of Korean patent information by K-PION
To help the examiners of foreign IPOs with their examination, KIPO launched a Korean to English (K2E) translation service for publications on patent/utility model applications, the so-called “the Korean Patent Information Online Network (K-PION),” in November 2005, which is now available at http://k-pion.kipo.go.kr/. The K-PION service is operated 24/7 based on a K2E translation engine which has been customized for patent documents with approximately 3.7 million technical terms and sentence patterns. It covers translation of file wrapper information and English keyword search for publications (or gazettes), including KPAs.
Participation in international or regional activities and projects related to patent information
Global Dossier
Global Dossier aims to allow each office’s examination information to be retrievable at a single portal and allow applicants to have the effect of simultaneous filing to multiple offices by a single filing. This concept was proposed by the USPTO in November 2011 among the IP5 offices (i.e., EPO, JPO, KIPO, SIPO, and USPTO). In line with this, KIPO launched its OPD service for examiners in August 2013, for the sake of the retrieval of examination information for IP5 family applications with application numbers at a time. In the meantime, the IP5 offices made an agreement on making the OPD service open to the public at the IP5 Heads meeting held in June 2013. To this end, KIPO launched its OPD Public Service in March 2015 and connected its OPD Examiner Service to WIPO CASE in order to share examination information with many more IP offices such as Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, Israel, and Brunei Darussalam.
Assistance to developing countries
KIPO-WIPO Joint IPR Education Projects
WIPO and KIPO have jointly managed the Advanced International Certificate Course, which is a blended IP program based on IP Panorama, targeting WIPO member states. In 2015, 641 trainees from 86 countries took the online course and 32 trainees from 19 countries attended the offline course of the blended program. In collaboration with the WIPO Worldwide Academy (WWA), KIPO has also offered the DL-101 course that covers the main areas of IPR in English to students of domestic universities that are affiliated with KIPO. Students who take these courses are issued with WIPO WWA and KIPO joint certificates. In 2015, 1585 students in 11 universities completed the course. Moreover, WIPO and KIPO jointly developed a mobile version of IP Panorama and had a launching ceremony for a global version of “IP Ignite” in Geneva.
Other activities
PATINEX 2015
To exchange information and facilitate the use and dissemination of IP information, an annual IP conference titled PATINEX (PATent INformation EXpo) has been conducted by KIPO since 2005. The conference is comprised of three events: a conference which focuses on the introduction of strategies and practices of IP information; an exhibition which shows diverse, up-to-date services and solutions of IP information; and a workshop where participant service providers give in-depth consultations on the use of IP information. The ninth PATINEX was held in September 2015, consisting of:
• Conference: under the theme “IP Knowledge Beyond Borders”
• Workshop: to give IP information service providers an opportunity to promote and market their products and services at 20 exhibition boothsOther activities
VII. OTHER RELATED MATTERS
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