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...
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...
KIPO’s newly released package on priority examination in designated technology fields 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 application is prepared cleanly and the fast-track basis is substantiated from the outset, a first office action could realistically arrive in roughly three months.The more strategic move is the new fee incentive. Applicants that file with a detailed explanation of the lawful...
On June 19, 2026, the Korean Intellectual Property Office (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 toward recognizing the...
Recent signals from the JPO and 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 KIPO 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 more likely to be tested on whether the specification...
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...
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...
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...
