The Ministry of SMEs and Startups will hold a nationwide roadshow to support idea protection and commercialization counseling for prospective founders and early startups. The aim is to help protect the rights of corporations in their early stages by allowing them to receive patents, trademarks, trade secrets, legal advice, and more all in one place.
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) said on the 12th that it will hold "Idea Consulting Day" in 17 cities and provinces nationwide.
The event is a startup support program of the Startup One-stop Support Center, which opened in Dec. last year. Since its launch, the center has provided counseling and support for about 15,000 issues raised by prospective founders and startup corporations over roughly seven months.
The event will offer one-on-one, tailored consultations with experts in intellectual property rights. More than 120 experts will participate, including attorneys from the Startup One-stop Support Center; the integrated technology protection support team for small and medium-sized corporations; the legal support group; and the Trade Secret Protection Center at the Korea Intellectual property Protection Agency (KOIPA).
Consultation areas include trade secret protection; patent and trademark applications; technology protection; and legal advice. It will also support consultations in areas needed during the startup process, such as management, tax, and accounting. If additional support is needed, follow-up counseling will be arranged through the Startup One-stop Support Center.
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) plans to use this event to raise awareness of the importance of idea protection from the early stage of founding and to create an environment where prospective founders and startup corporations can stably push forward with commercialization.
Mok Seung-hwan, head of the Startup Venture Innovation Office at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS), said, "Ideas are the most important asset for startups, so it is important to protect them systematically from the early stages," adding, "We will support startup corporations so they can confidently take on innovation by leveraging the nationwide startup one-stop support system and a network of intellectual property experts."
The schedule for events in each of the 17 cities and provinces nationwide can be found in the notices on the Startup Support Portal (K-Startup).