The Korea Technology Finance Corporation (KOTEC) announced on the 2nd that it will expand the support targets of its 'technology custody (technology guardian)' and 'TTRS (evidence guardian)' systems, which are operated to protect the technologies of small and medium-sized enterprises, to include public research institutions, industry-academic cooperation groups, and technology holding companies.
Technology custody is a system that helps small and medium-sized enterprises keep their owned technologies and management trade secrets from leaking by storing such information with KOTEC, enabling them to prove ownership of the technology in case of disputes such as technology leaks.
TTRS is an evidence guardian service that registers mutually exchanged materials during collaborations or negotiations between corporations, such as technology transactions, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), or joint research and development (R&D), to prevent technology theft and to be used as evidence in legal disputes.
Since being designated as a technology custody institution in January 2019, KOTEC has operated the two systems based on the technology protection platform 'TechSafe.' With this improvement, the scope has been expanded to include public technology, further enhancing the level of technology protection. This aims to manage technologies developed with government R&D budgets funded by taxpayer money.