KIPO to increase funds for IP protection in 2024 despite cuts

[Courtesy of KIPO]

The 2024 budget for the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) will be cut by 37.3 billion won, or 5.1 percent, to 701.7 billion won ($540 million), South Korea’s IP authority announced on Friday.

Despite the cut, expenditures on major projects for the protection, promotion, and use of intellectual properties (IPRs) will be increased by 2.9 billion won to 364.7 billion won in the upcoming year.

IP-DESKs, an IPR promotion program, will increase the number of countries in which it has offices from 11 to 40 in 2024, and small-to-medium-sized exporters eligible for the agency’s comprehensive IP support project will be increased to 808 companies from 673. The agency will also increase funds for the project to 14 billion won from 11.7 billion won in 2023.

The KIPO will invest 2 billion won to develop a patent search and classification service model using artificial intelligence (AI) and 900 million won to develop an IP transaction and valuation system that will establish a fair-trading order in the IP market.