IP News


Restoration of Patent Rights (Article 81ter) (effective as of September 1, 2005)
In Korea, a person seeking to register a patent right shall pay the first to third year patent rights annuities.  The 4th annuity and the subsequent annuities may be paid either yearly or several years' annuities in a lump sum depending on his/her financial conditions.  In this case, the 4th annuity must be paid before the expiry day of the third year. 

Further, a patentee has a grace period of six months after the expiry of the payment period to pay the late patent annuities, thereby maintaining the patent right by paying an amount equivalent to twice the normal patent fees. 

If the patent annuities are not paid within the grace period of six months, the patent right is deemed to have been extinguished retrospectively to the expiry date of the period for paying the patent annuities. 

However, where the extinguished patent right is under work (i.e. acts of manufacturing, selling, importing, exporting or licensing etc.) as of the last day of the expiry date of the grace period six months,  new additional grace period of three months are permitted.  In this case, the patent right can be restored by paying an amount equivalent to three times the normal patent annuities within the additional three months.  Restoration of utility model rights and design rights is applied in a similar way as that of patent rights.