A Freestyle ‘Temporary Specification’ Can be Filed at the Time of Filing a Patent Application
- Being able to quickly secure a patent application date by
submitting papers and study notes, etc. themselves
after research and development is anticipated -
The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) announced that a system has been prepared in which a ‘temporary specification’ describing the detailed description of the invention without following description formalities can be filed such that Korean national companies can promptly file patent applications. The system is enforced from March 30, 2020.
Since patenting is a system in which an exclusive right is given to the first person in the world who files an invention, for similar technologies among companies, the competition for filing a patent application earlier than any other company is fierce.
However, since up to now a specification prepared according to the regulated formalities and methods should be submitted at the time of filing a patent application, rewriting research results such as theses, etc., in the form of a specification takes considerable time, and accordingly, there are many voices arguing that prompt filing of an application is too difficult.
* A specification filed at the time of filing an application should follow Form No. 15 appended to the Enforcement Regulations of the Patent Act (Article 21(2) of Rules), and it is not possible to file the application unless each item on said form is filled out when filing an electronic application.
Consequently, KIPO has revised the Enforcement Rules of the Patent Act and the Utility Model Act so as to allow filing of a freestyle temporary specification without following existing formalities at the time of filing a patent or a utility model application.
However, since a patent application cannot be examined in the state of filing a temporary specification, in order for a corresponding invention to obtain a patent, a method of approving an application date as the date that the temporary specification was filed on by refiling an application with a priority right claim within one year from the filing date is recommended. Otherwise, a method of refiling a formal specification within 14 months from the date that the temporary specification was filed is possible.
Matching said system improvement this time, KIPO also improved the electronic application system such that for a document to be filed as a temporary specification, all common electronic file formats* such as PDFs, JPGs, etc. are acceptable. Accordingly, an applicant can file an invention described in a thesis, study notes, etc. without additional correction.
*File formats that can be filed: PDF, DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX, HWP, JPG, TIF
With the requirements for filing a patent specification being eased, study results can be immediately filed as an application in Korea, and accordingly, this is expected to be actively used by industry.
The Commissioner of KIPO stated, “There are many companies that suffer from difficulties in quickly securing patent application dates due to the need to take additional time for preparing a specification. In the case of using this temporary specification system that has now newly been prepared, as Korean companies can more quickly file applications for their developed technologies than before and approve the application dates by claiming priority right for later improved inventions, it is anticipated that innovative technologies can be further effectively protected.”
[Source: KIPO]