The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) has adopted a customized examination procedure for patent and utility 
model applications that will allow an applicant to select the speed of their examination procedure from three 
different types: Fast Examination, Regular Examination and Slow Examination. 


1. Fast Examination 

(1). Expansion of the Expedited Examination 
While maintaining the current criteria for the expedited examinations, the scope of eligible applications for 
expedited examination has been expended so that any applicant who attaches a prior art search report prepared by 
a patent search organization certified by KIPO will be allowed to qualify for the expedited examination. 

(2). The patent search organizations certified by KIPO are 'Korea Institute of Patent Information (KIPI)','WIPS Co., Ltd.,' 
'Korea IP Protection Technology Institute' and ' IP Solution Co., Ltd. 

(3). The examination result is normally issued within 3 months from the request of expedited examination. 

2. Regular Examination 

For general application for which an expedited examination or an examination postponement has not been requested, 
it is expected that the examination result will be issued within 16 months (based on the year 2008) from the examination request date. 

3. Slow Examination 

(1). A request for an examination postponement has been introduced for applicants who want to delay the examination. 

(2). This does not apply to divisional application, converted application, application by the lawful holder of a right 
disputing an untitled person's application and application for which an expedited examination has been granted. 
In other words, the request for an examination postponement only applies to regular patent application. 

(3). The request for an examination postponement can be filed simultaneously with an examination request or within 
6 months after the examination request date. 

(4). The period for the examination postponement can be specified as being after 18 months from the date of the 
examination request but within five years after the application filing date. 

(5). Cancelation of the request for an examination postponement or a modification of the specified period can be 
made within 2 months from the date of the request for examination postponement. 

(6). The examination result is expected to be issued within about 3 months from the specified period. 

The procedure of a request for an expedited examination and an examination postponement became effective 
on October 1, 2008.