Asia IP

The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) has launched a database of standardized Korean-English applicant names – a first among IP offices worldwide – and has granted the public free access to it via KIPRISPlus (Patent Information Web Services).

A “standardized applicant name” is a blanket term for collecting all facets of a given applicant – whether said applicant is an individual or a corporation – under a single unifying label. KIPO’s current database contains standardized applicant names in both English and Korean, as opposed to the previous, Korean-only version that was disseminated last June.

Nowadays, applicants are supposed to use only one applicant name for registration. Prior to 2009, however, there were no restrictions as to the number of applicant names they were allowed to use. Thus, there were many instances in which a single applicant was attached to several different applicant names. For example, the electronics company AA went by AA Electronics Co LTD, AA Electronics Co, and AA Electronics Corporation.

To address this issue and provide the public with access to precise applicant name data, KIPO pared its database of 1.3 million applicant names down to 1.22 million. It then used these names to establish a database of standardized applicant names linked to Korean patent, utility model, trademark, and design publications, 7.22 million files in total.

Standardized applicant name data make it easier for users to search for patents and other IPRs, whether they are held by individuals or corporations. Enhanced accuracy of information on IPR holders also leads to smoother technology transactions and increased protection for right holders. 

“The purpose for making the database is to secure the identity of applicants with paperless administration,” says Myung-Shin Kim, managing partner at Myung-Shin & Partners in Seoul. “It has been very useful when preparing statistics, and we practically could not find any drawbacks.”

The standardized Korean-English applicant name data that KIPO has made publicly available contain 980,000 applicant names registered in both English and Korean, making it easier to accurately search the English names of foreign firms and stay current with overseas application trends.

KIPO will collect the raw data for standardized Korean-English applicant names and put this data at the public’s disposal. This will enable individuals and firms to develop various IP products and services, such as applicant name search services and statistical products containing IP rights information.