Korea Intellectual Property Office marks 30 years of KIPRIS service

The Korea Intellectual Property Office said Tuesday it hosted an event to mark the 30th anniversary of its public intellectual property search service, KIPRIS. Commissioner Kim Yong-sun led the gathering at Forest Hall in Gangnam-gu, Seoul.

About 50 people attended the session, including industry officials and six young users from fields such as research, startups and academia. The office operates KIPRIS as a free public service allowing anyone to search approximately 150 million pieces of intellectual property information from 29 countries.

Participants proposed improvements including natural language search capabilities that do not require complex query formulas and features that explain difficult patent documents in plain language. The group also called for expanded practical training programs and greater openness of data for private sector use.

To guide these developments, the office appointed a 15-member public evaluation panel consisting of patent attorneys, researchers and students. This group will test new AI-based search services being developed in cooperation with the private sector under a Ministry of Science and ICT project.

The event also recognized winners of the Republic of Korea IP Search Challenge, a participatory program that ran for six weeks starting in July. Some 370 individuals took part, identifying a total of 1,923 intellectual property rights.

"I will actively support creative ideas and challenges by young people so they can lead to new value and opportunities through intellectual property," Kim said. He added that the office plans to evolve KIPRIS into a tool where anyone can easily find and utilize ideas through AI natural language search and expanded overseas information.