12 Months Grace Period in Korea

Article 30 of the Korean Patent Act provides 12 months grace period for disclosed inventions. In inventor or his assignee may obtain a patent through filing an application for the disclosed invention within 12 months from the date of novelty destroying event.

The disclosure of an invention as novelty destroying event might be done by an inventor, his assignee or a 3rd party. If an inventor or his assignee disclosed the invention, they may obtain a patent under the grace period scheme. However, in case the invention was disclosed through patent publications such as A1 publication or B1 publication in any country which was filed by an inventor or his assignee, the grace period may not be applied and thus the applicant finally lost an opportunity to obtain a patent in Korea. Therefore, patent specification publications are critical exceptions to grace period under then Korean patent law.

In other hand, where a 3rd party disclosed the invention without permission of an inventor or his assignee, an inventor or his assignee may file an application for the disclosed invention within 12 months from the date of disclosure. An applicant must prove that the invention was disclosed by a 3rd party against his intention.

An applicant must submit a written document claiming grace period benefit to KIPO when filing a patent application. Further, within 30 days from the filing date, an applicant must submit evidence supporting his claims to the novelty destroying event.