Korea’s Ministry of Intellectual Property (MOIP) has launched a consolidated “AI, Data and Intellectual Property” webpage on the Korea Institute of Intellectual Property (KIIP) website, bringing together research materials on the intersection of artificial intelligence, data and IP. The page is organised around four areas: AI technology and patent trends, AI and IP policy systems, data and IP, and AI-generated works and IP. In practical terms, it gives users one place to follow issues such as copyright in AI-generated outputs, inventorship and examination questions for AI-related...

South Korea’s Ministry of Intellectual Property (MOIP, formerly KIPO) announced on 29 June 2026 that it was reorganising and expanding its response to technology leakage, with the new structure taking effect on 30 June. A dedicated Technology Leakage Special Judicial Police Division will now handle trade secret theft and leakage involving strategic sectors such as artificial intelligence and semiconductors, separating those investigations from routine patent and design infringement work. The technology police workforce is being increased from 27 to 61, with specialist investigators, patent...

In early August 2026, South Korea’s former Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), now elevated to the ministry-level Ministry of Intellectual Property (MOIP), moved to deepen its technical examination strategy for artificial intelligence and other future-growth technologies. The plan places AI, spatial computing and related strategic fields more prominently within examination capacity building, signalling an effort to make specialist patent examination a more active part of Korea’s innovation policy and international IP role.MOIP has also updated the fee charged in its capacity as a...

South Korea’s Ministry of Intellectual Property (MOIP) has announced that its 2026 budget for intellectual property dispute response will rise to KRW 46.836 billion, up KRW 14.520 billion from the previous year. The policy target is highly practical: many companies still struggle to act effectively even after they have been sued or infringed because dispute response remains expensive, specialist-driven and difficult to coordinate across borders. The announcement makes that policy logic concrete through two representative scenarios: a generative AI company sued overseas by a non-practicing...

As of October 1, 2025, South Korea elevated the former Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) to the Ministry of Intellectual Property (MOIP), giving intellectual property a visibly higher place in the state architecture. The point is not the new acronym. The real story is that Korea is treating intellectual property less as a back-office registration function and more as part of industrial strategy, innovation policy, and national dispute readiness.That said, the reform should not be overstated. According to MOIP’s public FAQ, copyright matters remain under the Ministry of Culture,...

On April 9, 2026, South Korea’s intellectual property authority—still widely known internationally as KIPO, though its official website now publishes under the Ministry of Intellectual Property (MOIP) branding—announced that its official mascots “Miri” and “IPI” have begun public activities. According to the official release, Miri appears as a shield-like guardian symbolizing early protection and prevention in intellectual property, while IPI takes the form of a lightbulb, reflecting the idea of turning today’s ideas into tomorrow’s assets. Both marks completed trademark and service mark...

South Korea officially launched its pan-government one-stop reporting platform for overseas infringement on April 27, creating a single channel for Korean brands facing malicious trademark filings, counterfeits and online infringement in foreign markets. By bringing together customs, police and diplomatic resources, the platform is designed to shorten the distance between a complaint and an actual enforcement response.That is more than an administrative update. For many K-Brands expanding abroad, the harder part has never been identifying the problem but moving quickly across borders once...

On 5 May, 32 South Korean copyright and creator organisations issued a joint statement opposing the government’s “use first, settle later” approach under the Korea AI Action Plan. The proposal is framed as a way to accelerate AI development by widening room for fair use, but creator groups argue that it would weaken their ability to control how their works are used.The dispute is not merely about compensation rates. It goes to the starting point of copyright bargaining: whether AI developers should obtain permission before using protected works, or whether mass use can be normalised first...

Editor’s note (24 September 2026): as of publication we have not located an official announcement of the measures described below; this article is based on industry briefings and is subject to official confirmation. The package on priority examination in designated technology fields newly released by Korea's Ministry of Intellectual Property (MOIP, formerly KIPO) does two things at once for AI patent filers. It moves “AI large-model architecture” and “embodied-intelligence control algorithms” into the top priority review lane, and it reshapes the fee logic around that lane. Where the...

On June 19, 2026, Korea's Ministry of Intellectual Property (MOIP, formerly KIPO) released a mid-year supplement to its Examination Guidelines for AI-Related Inventions, responding to the rapid rise of AI-generated and AI-assisted R&D outputs. The practical question is no longer simply whether AI may be used in research. It is how examiners will separate inventorship from tool use when the claimed advance rests on fine-tuning, parameter retraining, domain adaptation, or the selective shaping of model outputs.The signal from the supplement is fairly clear. South Korea is not moving...

Recent signals from the JPO and Korea's Ministry of Intellectual Property (MOIP, formerly KIPO) are best read as a shift in examination practice for AI inventions rather than a dramatic headline reform. No single new “AI patent statute” has suddenly appeared. But when the IP5 keeps deepening comparative materials on AI examination, the JPO expands its support structure for AI-related cases, and MOIP continues to formalize examiner exchange and AI-related examination frameworks, the practical message is hard to miss: an AI invention is less likely to survive on functional ambition alone and...

South Korea’s latest IP moves are easier to understand together than apart. On 25 June, MOIP outlined its IP-AX coordination framework, signalling that AI-assisted invention, AI-enabled examination and related policy adjustments will be handled in a more integrated way. On 3 July, MOIP then publicised a four-party cooperation arrangement with MFDS, the Korea Customs Service and the Korea Cosmetic Association aimed at tightening the response to counterfeit cosmetics moving through cross-border channels and online platforms.Read separately, one story looks like patent governance and the other...

On 3 July 2026, South Korea’s Ministry of Intellectual Property (MOIP) announced amendments to the Enforcement Rules of the Trademark Act, effective from 17 June. For international trademark registrations designating South Korea under the Madrid System, the exemption from filing a separate representative notification has been broadened. Previously, the exemption applied when the first filing was a request to extend a designated period; it now also covers cases where the first filing is a request to extend a statutory period.The change is modest, but practical. It should reduce avoidable...

On 31 July 2026, Korea's Ministry of Intellectual Property (MOIP, formerly KIPO) announced that it had deployed an AI model within its internal trademark examination system to identify suspected bad-faith filings and abnormal application patterns. The system cross-checks new applications against databases of globally recognised brands and high-demand product terms used in cross-border e-commerce, flagging lookalike marks, bulk stockpiling and filings that may lack a genuine intention to use.Where an application is assessed as high risk, examiners may require the applicant at an early stage...

Editor’s note (24 September 2026): as of publication we have not located an official announcement of the measures described below; this article is based on industry briefings and is subject to official confirmation. South Korea’s Ministry of Intellectual Property (MOIP) announced on 2 September 2026 a targeted incentive package for designs tied to the metaverse and digital economy. From this week, international design applications filed through the Hague System that designate South Korea and clearly identify the product as a graphical user interface (GUI), digital virtual avatar or...

South Korea’s Ministry of Intellectual Property (MOIP) announced on 10 September 2026 that it is broadening its Super Fast-Track examination framework for strategic technologies, extending coverage to areas including AI edge-computing chips, on-device large-model architectures and neuromorphic chips. Under MOIP’s current 2026 framework, eligible cases are targeted for a first examination result in about one month, making the route materially faster than ordinary examination and reinforcing the government’s push to secure rights around technologies with short product and investment...

South Korea is accepting a second round of K-Brand government certification applications from 14 to 28 September 2026, closing at 18:00 Korean time. The programme pairs a government-owned certification mark with smartphone authenticity checks and plans filings across 73 countries and territories. Verification data would support monitoring, with overseas IP centres helping investigate suspected counterfeits and preserve evidence. This is an exporter support programme, not a new trade mark law or confirmation that registration is complete in every target market.Eligible applicants are Korean...

Korea's Ministry of Intellectual Property (MOIP) opened a legislative notice on 21 September for a proposed partial amendment to the Enforcement Rule of the Design Protection Act, with comments invited until 2 November. The proposal would substantially reduce the material required for typeface design applications: for Hangul typefaces, designated characters would fall from 500 to 209 and drawings from five to two; for Chinese-character typefaces, designated characters would fall from 900 to 310 and drawings from nine to two. MOIP says the change is intended to retain the structural...

Korea's Ministry of Intellectual Property (the former KIPO) and the Korea Institute of Patent Information marked the 30th anniversary of KIPRIS at an event in Seoul on 22 September. KIPRIS is Korea's public IP information search service, holding about 150 million IP records collected by the ministry from Korea and 29 countries and open to anyone free of charge. At the event's talk session with young users, 6 researchers, founders, students and patent attorneys drew on their own experience to propose an AI natural-language search that lets beginners find patents in everyday...