Intellectual Property Minister Kim Yong-seon said the government will strengthen investigation and dispute-response systems to counter technology leaks and theft.
Minister Kim, at a briefing on the 2026 work report held at the Government Complex Sejong on the 17th, cited as next year's key directions the preemptive blocking of technology leaks and the advancement of dispute responses, the response to the artificial intelligence (AI) transition, and the fostering of region-based intellectual property.
The Intellectual Property Office plans to detect technology leaks early and block them in advance. Using patent information, it will detect risks of leaks of national strategic advanced technologies at an early stage, and it aims to systematize efforts by creating a dedicated investigation team within the technology police focused on preventing overseas leaks of advanced technology.
Minister Kim said, "Technology theft among corporations has become a social issue," adding, "The Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Fair Trade Commission also handle related tasks, but in some cases their mandates are limited or focus on administrative investigations. We will strengthen our capacity to professionally investigate infringements of intellectual property, including trade secrets." Kim also said, "The technology police currently number about 25, which is small," adding, "We will seek to expand staffing through consultations with relevant ministries."
The dispute response will be driven by the launch of a dedicated organization. Centered on the newly formed Intellectual Property Dispute Response Bureau, the Intellectual Property Office will prepare response plans that cover domestic and overseas intellectual property infringements across the board. It will establish an "intellectual property dispute crisis response center" to integrate reporting and counseling, and consolidate legal support functions—such as the Public Interest Patent Attorney Center, the Industrial Property Rights Dispute Mediation Committee, and the Trade Secret Protection Center—into an "intellectual property legal aid center" to build a one-stop support system.
Protecting export corporations was also presented as a main pillar alongside responses to technology leaks. For sectors prone to trademark infringement—such as food, beauty, and fashion—the government will newly operate the "IP Dispute Doctor" (about 1,000 companies) to diagnose dispute risks in advance and will build an AI-based alert system to catch trademark squatting early. It will also push legal and institutional improvements, including amendments to the Trademark Act, to curb the online distribution of counterfeit goods. As a system improvement to support intellectual property litigation, it will pursue the introduction of a "Korea-style discovery (evidence collection) system."
The Intellectual Property Office also said it will begin the "Ideas for All" contest in January and support everything from advancing the selected ideas to securing rights, linking to transaction and startups, and, for youth, even linking to employment. The top prize will be 1 billion won, and to broaden participation, it plans to give 30,000 won in local currency to the top 10,000 participants.
To vitalize intellectual property transactions, it will strengthen the functions of technology transfer offices (TLOs) at universities and public research institutes and increase the number of transaction specialists at the Intellectual Property Exchange from 17 this year to 100 by 2030. The plan also includes the creation of a transaction and commercialization fund (200 billion won in 2026), the launch of intellectual property-based commercialization research and development (R&D), and the fostering of specialized companies that monetize overseas intellectual property (20 companies by 2030).
A response to the AI transition was also laid out. Using intellectual property big data to analyze core AI patents, the office said it will create an "AI patent strategy map" and build an information analysis platform that makes patent information easy to use.
By strengthening examination capacity and building an AI-based administrative system, it also set a goal of cutting examination backlogs to around 10 months for patents and around six months for trademarks. It also placed on the agenda the establishment of intellectual property norms on new issues, such as whether to recognize an invention created by AI as an "inventor."
As a regional strategy, it proposed commercializing cultural heritage and regional brands by combining them with intellectual property. Minister Kim noted growing demand for cultural heritage-based products, such as "Muze," which refers to national museum cultural products, and said the government will support the securing of rights for local cultural heritage and foster brands for regional specialties and traditional markets. It also included establishing a comprehensive support center (tentatively named the Intellectual Property Innovation Square) in each of the five hubs and three special zones to provide end-to-end support, from transactions to commercialization to finance; creating invention education centers and intellectual property university clusters; and invigorating employee invention compensation systems.
Minister Kim Yong-seon said, "As the Intellectual Property Office is an organization where 'knowledge' and 'asset' come together, we will do our best to help the economy take another leap by turning the public's ideas and knowledge into solid assets."