KIPO to focus on ‘luxury patents’ as part of drive to improve Korea’s negative IP trade balance

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The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) is to focus on ‘luxury patents’ to address the challenge of the country’s negative IP balance of trade, KIPO head, Commissioner Kim Wan-ki, said in a recent interview with The Korea Herald.

Commissioner Kim defined luxury patents as “strong, money-making patents” which have secured broad exclusive rights, are clear and enforceable against third parties, and carry significant economic value, the story says.

The Herald quotes him as stating: “South Korea already ranks fourth in global patent filings and international applications, and third in standard-essential patents… But our IP trade balance has remained in deficit: $24.6 billion in 2022, $16.6 billion in 2023 and $18.4 billion so far this year. This shows that while we are strong in quantity, we must improve in quality. Luxury patents will provide the real growth engine.”

To deliver against this goal, KIPO will focus its efforts on four pillars:

• securing high-value patents in advanced industries through research and development analysis;

• facilitating commercialization and exports of these patents to generate tangible profits;

• establishing a fair market order that fully recognizes the value of IP;

• and making changes to the country’s patent examination procedures to ensure broad and stable rights.

Kim also warned of a potentially devastating IP gap between developed nations and less developed countries. “Advanced countries have infrastructure but face shortages of young researchers due to aging populations. Developing nations, meanwhile, have talent and dynamism but lack the IP systems to support it.”

South Korea, once one of the world’s least developed countries, has become a powerhouse of IP and innovation; it is now actively sharing the lessons learned from its history over the past 50 years or so with less developed countries. The Korea Herald quotes Kim: “We hope our experience can help developing countries strengthen their IP infrastructure, close the divide and stimulate global innovation.”

South Korea is one of the world’s leading nations when it comes to the use of IP as collateral for bank lending, and it is actively promoting the role of IP in economic development in Asia. At the start of September 2025, KIPO published its budget plans for 2026; according to media site Chosun Biz, these include an expansion of the body’s projects exploring IP valuation and their use as collateral “to ensure that innovative technology corporations can secure stable operating funds by using intellectual property as collateral.”

Separately, as reported by the Korea Post, over three days at the start of September 2025, KIPO hosted the 8th Association of Southeast Asian Nations-Korea Heads of IP Offices Meeting in Seoul.

Alongside the main event, a series of bilateral meetings with senior representatives from eight ASEAN countries – Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam – as well as observer country Timor-Leste, saw wide ranging discussions around topics including IP protection, IP finance, SME support, and capacity building.

As part of the discussions, Singapore and KIPO signed an expanded memorandum of understanding (MOU) to enhance cooperation on artificial intelligence, IP finance, and valuation, in addition to existing ongoing activities.