DPRK WIPO patent applications dry up

According to Yonhap:

North Korea has not filed a single international patent application with the global patent governing body since last September, a media report said.

The U.S.-based Radio Free Asia (RFA), citing an official at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), reported on April 28 that North Korea has applied for 22 international patents since 1993 but new applications have dried up since September 2010.

North Korea’s previous patent filings included those on finger print-recognition technology and fuel-efficient engines and others. The country joined the United Nations patent body in 1974.

South Korea, meanwhile, has applied for 2,800 patents with WIPO in September last year, averaging about 700 per month.

Ham Yoon-seok, a Korean patent attorney working in the United States, said that North Korean law does not properly recognize the intellectual property rights of inventions and patents, attributing the notion to the weak patent applications.

Read the full story here:
N. Korea’s Int’l Patent Applications Dry up Since Late 2010: WIPO
Yonhap
2011-5-5

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