On July 11, 2025, the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) implemented a series of amendments to patent and utility model procedures aiming to ease administrative burdens for applicants. The two primary revisions include extending the response period for office actions to four months, as well as expanding the eligibility for differed examination to include divisional applications.

Response timeline for Office Actions has been extended

The deadline for responding to office actions in Korea’s patent and utility model application process has been extended from two months to four months.

The new four-month response period, extendable by up to an additional four months, gives applicants more time to prepare thorough responses, ultimately aiming to improve patent quality. The process for extension beyond the standard four months remains unchanged, requiring monthly extension requests and payment of additional fees.

However, for those who wish to expedite the process, it is still possible to file an early response along with a request for a shortened response period.

This change aligns Korea’s response timelines with those of other major jurisdictions, such as China and Europe (four months) and extends the deadlines beyond those of the United States and Japan (three months).

What this means for applicants

With more time now available for office action responses, applicants can better coordinate with local and overseas counsel, gather stronger supporting evidence, and develop more persuasive arguments. At the same time, early responses can still be leveraged for those aiming for faster grants.

Whether you choose to take the extra time or accelerate the process, this change will give greater flexibility for applicants to tailor their Korean patent prosecution strategy to their business goals.

Divisional applications are now eligible for deferred examination

In Korea, a request for examination must be filed within three years of the patent application’s filing date (international filing date for PCT national phase entries). In addition, KIPO allows applicants the chance to postpone the start of substantive examination further by filing a request for a deferred examination within 9 months of the request for examination.

In the request for deferred examination the applicant may designate a desired deferral end date (i.e., the date when the applicant wants the examination to restart), which must fall between two years from the filing date of a request for examination and five years ​from the filing date of the application. 

As of July 11, KIPO has expanded this system to also allow examination deferrals for divisional applications. The change took effect on July 11, 2025, but divisional applications filed before this date may still be eligible as long as the 9-month deadline for the deferral request has not yet expired.

What this means for applicants

This change aims to benefit applicants patent portfolio management in industries with long product development cycles – such as biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and telecommunications – by providing additional tools to better coordinate patent prosecution strategy with commercialization objectives.

However, it should be noted that the timelines for requesting a deferral of examination are tied to the filing date of the original application. As a result, the system may in practice have limited applicability for divisional applications unless they are filed early in the prosecution of the original parent application.