Neglected Overseas Patents to Be Revived as National R&D Assets

NST and Intellectual Property Office to Proactively Identify Infringement of Overseas Patents Held by Government-Funded Institutes

Turning Registered Patents into Subjects of Rights Enforcement

Connecting Litigation and Licensing with Privat

Efforts are underway to exercise and monetize overseas patents held by government-funded research institutes. Attention is focused on whether this could mark a turning point, enabling South Korea—traditionally targeted by overseas patent holders—to counterattack by leveraging the achievements of national research organizations.

According to the scientific community on June 7, the National Research Council of Science & Technology (NST) is collaborating with the Intellectual Property Office and the Korea Intellectual Property Protection Agency to proactively identify potential infringements of patents owned by government-funded research institutes abroad and to establish a system that connects with private intellectual property (IP) monetization specialists. The goal is not just to hold overseas patents, but to actively exercise these rights through litigation, licensing, and other means.

Government-funded research institutes have secured a significant number of technologies and patents developed with government budget support, but have been relatively passive in actively utilizing these patents. In particular, maintaining overseas patents incurs annual costs, yet it is difficult to determine if foreign companies are infringing on these patents. Even when signs of infringement are detected, claim analysis, evidence collection, and devising overseas litigation strategies require specialized personnel and funding. This is why it has been challenging for individual research institutes to respond on their own.

To reverse this situation, government-funded research institutes, NST, the Korea Intellectual Property Protection Agency, and the Intellectual Property Office have joined forces, marking a turning point for monetization projects leveraging patents. A representative from the scientific community explained, "Some research institutes have identified cases where their patents have been infringed and are preparing to take aggressive action."

Once a patent expires, it is difficult to pursue enforcement or licensing even if infringement is identified. Therefore, it is important to proactively identify overseas patents with a high risk of infringement and to establish monitoring systems and enforcement strategies in advance.

In the past, the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) also pursued overseas monetization based on standard patents. However, such cases have been extremely rare. For most research institutes, it has been difficult to continuously monitor potential overseas patent infringements and independently carry out enforcement strategies.

Monetizing overseas IP is closely related to the competition for technological supremacy and the issue of technology sovereignty. In strategic national technology fields such as semiconductors, secondary batteries, and biotechnology, overseas patents serve as tools for technological protection and market negotiation power. If core technologies secured through national R&D are left unprotected and are exploited overseas, this could lead to not only institutional losses but also undermine national technological competitiveness.

Park Sungphil, Dean of the Graduate School of Future Strategy at KAIST, stated, "While it is important to secure research achievements as patents, their value only materializes when infringement is checked and rights can be exercised. Until now, our universities and research institutes have been lax in enforcing their patent rights relative to the effort put into research," adding, "If active enforcement leads to compensation, it will also serve as an incentive for researchers."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.