Attorneys in the D.P.R. of Korea, Protection of Intellectual Property: Patent, Trademark, Industrial Design & Copyright.

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I.  P A T E N T S

Application Guidelines

Any corporation or individual from another country wishing to register a patent in the D.P.R. of Korea, must commission the application document to the Patent Agency.

1) Documents for application must be prepared in Korean.

If the documents cannot be prepared in Korean, it can also be in English, Spanish, Chinese, French, or German.  However, within three months of the first application date, the documents translated into Korean need to be submitted.

Translation of the application documents can be requested to the Patent Agency.

2) When submitting the application documents, the Patent Agency must receive the Power of Attorney, Inventor's Declaration, the Priority confirmation document, and Assignment Deed (assigns the right of application to another party), from the applicant and submit them together with the application document.

If the above documents cannot be submitted within three months from the day the application documents are first submitted, the period can be extended for another three months through a request from the applicant. However, the applicant must pay the required extension fee.

If the remaining documents cannot be submitted within the first three months, the date of submission will be the date when all of the necessary documents are submitted. If the required documents cannot be submitted even after six months, the application will be nullified.

3) The documents for reviewing requires an application form, letter of explanation, an abstract, extent of assertion and a picture (design). Information necessary for introduction needs to be attached as well.

4) The application documents need to be prepared in the following format.

- The application documents must be in white paper with the standard size of 21X29.7cm (A4).

- The application documents must be typed or printed in black block letters. Duplicated copies are not accepted.

The upper and left side of the application documents must have 2.5cm blank space so that each document can be separated or put together easily. The documents are to be tied together with a string on the left hand side.

Application Process

1) Within 20 days from the day of the application, the Invention Office must send to the applicant a notice of application confirming the application number and application date of the applicant.

- The Invention Office will accept the application documents, filed as required by the regulation, and will record on the application register according to the order they were submitted.

- When the application number and the application date of the application document are decided, then the Invention Office will send a notice of application to the applicant within 20 days from the date of application.

2) If priority is claimed according to an international treaty or an agreement, then under the condition that the application will be made within the period determined by the treaty or the agreement, the date of priority will be acknowledged.

3) The Invention Office can request for an amendment or a supplementary information if an important part or an element is missing from the science and technological content of the application document or the document does not follow the established regulation. However, if those requested documents are not submitted within 3 months, then the priority date of the invention will be when all of the application documents are completed and submitted.

4) After the Invention Office receives the application documents, the Invention Office will submit the title of invention, name of applicant, name of company, application number, priority date, and the abstract of the invention to the Invention Application Official Bulletin within 1 month.

- Any organizations or citizens with an opinion about the official bulletin of the application, will submit a written opinion to the Invention Office within 3 months from the day the official bulletin of the application is published.

- The opinion concerning the content announced in the Invention Application Official Bulletin must be clear with an accompanying document of proof of the opinion. The opinion needs to be directly carried to the office or sent by mail.

- The Invention Application Agency will handle the filed opinion within 2 months and will notified the result to the submitter and to the related personals.

Application Fee

The application fee has to be paid at the filing of the application.  However, the fees, including the application fee, are allowed to be paid before the expiration of the 6th month from the date of receipt of the application, in which case a surcharge amounting to 50 percent of the principal sum is added.

Term of Patent Protection

The term will be 15 years from the priority date.

1) In the case of applying for International Patent, the term of protection will be calculated from the day the application is submitted to the Invention Office of our country.

2) The patent owner who wishes to extend the term of patent protection must submit a form of request requesting the extension of term to the Invention Office 12 months before the protection term expires.

- When filing a request, the title of invention, name and address of the applicant, work position, date when patent was received, patent number, protection term, and reason for requesting an extension, need to be stated clearly.

- The request for the extension of protection term will be discussed and decided within 3 months from the day the request is accepted by the Invention Office.

- The Invention Office must notify the decision of the National Invention Reviewing Committee to the patent owner. If the extension of the term of protection is confirmed at that time, the reason must be announced to the public through the invention official bulletin.

3) In order to maintain the effect of the term of patent protection, the patent owner must pay the set protection fee every year. The standard of the protection fee will be decided by the National Price Establishing Agency and the method of payment will be decided by the Invention Office.

- The amount of protection fee and its method of payment will be announced separately each period.

- Within 3 months from the day the Invention Office sends a notice of decision of patent registration, the patent owner must pay the protection fee together with the protection fee of the past years. From the following year, the protection fee will be paid within 3 months before the beginning of that year.

- After the fixed deadline is passed, the protection fee can be paid late, up to 180 days. However, in this case, 50% of the original fee must be paid as an extension fee.

If the protection fee is not paid even after 180 days from the fixed deadline, the effect of the patent will be nullified.

- Once the protection fee is paid, the money will not be returned except in the case of over-payment.

NOTES

A period of any written opinion or objection is 3 months from the date on which the applicant is notified of it.

The examination of a proposed invention and decision on it is made within the 15^th month from the filing date.

The duration of a patent is 15 years from the date on which the application was filed with the receiving authority.  However, its duration can be extended once for 5 years, if the applicant so wishes.
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2003©  RyongSong Patent Office, D.P.R. of Korea