Purpose of the program
- To establish a system of technological and business viability of an invention composed of the evaluation organizations of inventions (including the public or government-funded research institutes and the certified evaluation agencies, etc.)
- A part of the evaluation fee is covered by the government's funding to support earlier commercialization of promising technologies.
The related legal basis
Article 21 (The designation of the evaluation agencies for inventions), the INVENTION PROMOTION ACT
To accelerate the commercialization of the inventions registered as industrial property rights, the government may designate government-funded, or public research institutes, private research institutes, or other organizations specializing in the evaluation of technical or business viability as the evaluation agency of inventions. All parties that wish to commercialize an invention may request an evaluation of the technical and business viability of an invention by a designated invention evaluation organization.
Article 23 (Preferred financial aid from financial institutions or other organizations), the INVENTION PROMOTION ACT
An invention that is found to be viable as a result of the above-mentioned evaluation may be eligible to prefer financial support from financial institutions.
Article 25 (Prototype-building support), the INVENTION PROMOTION ACT
Seeks the strategies that are necessary to build a prototype of an invention that is found viable in terms of technology and feasibility as a result of the evaluation, including financial support.
The process of handling an evaluation; evaluation fees; and the process of providing subsidies
The eligibility for the application for evaluation and subsidies for the evaluation fees
The applicant of the evaluation of inventions must be a citizen, who is an individual or an SME, of the country and eligible for the right for registration or utility models maintenance decisions as per the Patent Act and the Utility Models Act as of the date of application, their successors, or the exclusive exerciser of such rights, or the public research institutions as per Item 5, Article 2 under the TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER PROMOTION ACT (provided that the technologies for which a utility model registration was submitted after 1997. 7. 1 must be the ones for which a utility models maintenance decision was made.)
The support conditions and limits for the evaluation fee subsidies
- Korean Intellectual Property Office is to designate and operate specialized evaluation organizations as the evaluation organizations for the conduct of the evaluation.
- The application of the evaluation shall directly contact the evaluation organization to conduct the evaluation and pay the evaluation fees. (The fees and time taken for an evaluation may depend on the institution.)
- If the evaluation is completed by the evaluation agency, the agency is to inform the applicant (inventor) of the result.
- One the evaluation is over, the applicant is to prepare the required documents and apply for the subsidies for evaluation fees to KIPA, which will provide the subsidies for the inventions of which the evaluation was completed within the same year, as the budget allows, (provided that, at the discretion of the head of KIPA, the subsidies can be provided to the inventions of which the evaluation was completed in the preceding year.)
- One applicant can receive a subsidy for evaluation fee up to four times a year, without exceeding 80% of the total evaluation fees. However, the total of the subsidy per year cannot exceed 30 million won per applicant.
- If the applicant received a technical viability evaluation and a business viability evaluation for the same right, it should be considered that the applicant received two separate evaluations. And, if the same applicant received either a technical viability evaluation or a business viability evaluation from two or more different organizations or received the same evaluation from the same organization twice, the subsidy shall be paid out for the evaluation by one of such organizations, as per the request by the right holder.
- KIPA shall form and hold a meeting of the evaluation committee to select the beneficiaries of evaluation subsidies for each quarter and select such beneficiaries in consideration of all of the following factors;
1. The relevance, specificity, and practical values of project
2. The clarity of the plan to use the result of the evaluation
3. The potential contribution to the development of the industries of the country
- If there is a tie in score or ranking between candidates, the preference shall be given in the order of the inventors of smaller scales, individual inventors, the invention/development by an SME.
The utilization of the results of the evaluation
- It is possible to check the technical and business viability of one's own invention before the commercialization of the invention.
- The result can be used as an objective basis for the brokerage service (assignment of the right, licensing, or joint venture) by the Patent Technology Brokerage Center.
- It is possible to receive the technical preferred guarantee support by Korea Technology Credit Guarantee Fund for superb inventions or development by an SME.
- For the inventions that are considered of high value, it is possible to get a bonus point for the superb invention prototype production support program according to Article 25 of the INVENTION PROMOTION ACT.
- The inventions found to be of a higher value can receive bonus points for the recommendation of superb inventions for preferred purchase.
※ Especially, with regard to the second item above, the applicant may submit a commercialization brokerage application form for the brokerage center. For the third item, the applicant must receive the evaluations for both technical viability and business viability in accordance with the rules of the Korea Technology Credit Guarantee Fund. As for the fourth and fifth items, it is possible that the only applicants for the relevant program can receive the bonus point.
The evaluation organizations of inventions and contact information
Evaluation items: Technical viability evaluation items
Notes and precautions
- The evaluation request must be submitted to the evaluation organization directly. The subsidy request must be submitted to KIPA after the completion of the evaluation. The selection of the beneficiaries of the subsidy shall be selected by the evaluation committee after gathering up the applications for the evaluation subsidies for the quarter.
- The decisions for loans against patents or preferred financial aid programs are to be made by the providing financial institutions themselves, as these programs are not funded by the Korean Intellectual Property Office or KIPA.
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