KIPO conducts formality examination and substantive examination of utility model patent applications, but only needs to meet the standards of novelty and practicality, and does not require inventive step.
If the following situations occur 12 months before the patent application/priority date by the inventor, applicant or assignee:
- By correspondence, or publicly at national or international exhibitions
Disclosure due to malicious disclosure by a third party
The novelty grace period can be enjoyed, and the applicant needs to submit corresponding evidence support when submitting the application.
no
2-3 years
For the design of partial substantive examination, multiple designs can be included in one design application, but the designs must belong to the same class in the international design classification.
Restoration of priority will not be accepted.
no
20 years
- Grant fee: The applicant should pay the annual fee for the first to third year within 3 months after receiving the notification of granted decision
- Annuity: Begin to pay year by year from the 4th year, overdue payment can be made within the 6-month grace period after the due date, but a penalty shall be paid, and the amount of the penalty shall not exceed twice the granted fee.
- via Paris Convention : 12 months from earliest priority date.
- via Nationalization of PCT : 31 months from earliest priority date.
- The average time for partial substantive examination design granted is 1-2 months.
- The average time for substantive examination of design granted is 10-12 months.