The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) recently announced that (i) the period of issuance of each of the first and second office actions for patent applications under the Korea-US/Korea-Japan Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) has been shortened to three months; (ii) the "Report of Prior Art Search by Designated Institutions" will be removed from the bases for requesting accelerated examination; and (iii) the technical fields of accelerated examination will be expanded to include "Display Device" and "Secondary Battery," in addition to the existing "Semiconductor" field, for those patent applications filed by companies producing, or preparing to produce, related products in Korea.

▶Shortened Examination Period for PPH Applications

From August 1, 2023, the KIPO has implemented a "PPH Improvement Policy" for Korean patent applications based on granted US or Japanese patents, reducing the issuance period of first or second office actions to three months.

Prior to the implementation, the examination regulations of the KIPO stipulated that a first examination result must be issued within four months from the time when the KIPO decides to conduct the accelerated examination, with no specific requirement for the issuance period of a second office action.

Under the new regulation, the KIPO has now established a three-month deadline for the issuance of each of the first and second examination results for applications filed through the PPH program based on US or Japanese patents.

▶Report of Prior Art Search by Designated Institutions Removed from Accelerated Patent Examination Grounds

The KIPO has announced an amendment to the Korean Patent Act, effective January 1, 2024, removing the "Report of Prior Art Search Prepared by Designated Institutions” from the accelerated examination criteria.

Due to a significant increase in the volume of accelerated examination requests based on prior art search reports by designated institutions, e.g., reports from the Korea Institute of Intellectual Property Promotion, there were concerns about delays in the initiation of non-accelerated examinations.

In response, the KIPO will exclude the "Report of Prior Art Search by Designated Institutions" from the accelerated examination criteria and has announced plans to allocate a surplus of examination personnel removed from the above examination service to such other technology fields, e.g., semiconductors, display devices, and secondary cells.

▶Expansion of Patent Accelerated Examination Criteria for Advanced Technologies Developed or Produced in Korea

With the expansion of the technologies covered under the accelerated examination program to include display devices (from November 2023) and secondary batteries (in 2024), the KIPO has accordingly extended the accelerated examination program for advanced technologies, which had been set to expire in October 2023, to October 2024. Such accelerated examination program had been in effect since November 2022, originally only covering patent applications in the semiconductor field.

The conditions for accelerated examination in these advanced technology fields include: (i) applications from applicants producing, or preparing to produce, related products and devices in Korea, and (ii) applications related to the results of Korean government-funded research and development projects in the relevant technology.

Considering the average period of 1.9 months for the issuance of first office actions in case of semiconductor-related patent applications through accelerated examination, the issuance of first office actions for display device and secondary battery fields meeting these criteria is also expected to take approximately two months.