Source: KIPO
Date: 2011. 8. 17

- Five social enterprises will be selected in the latter half of this year to execute the pilot program, which is planned for 2012 -

KIPO has decided to support social enterprises that provide social services and jobs to socioeconomically disadvantaged people by developing brands and designs and turning them into rights to expand sales routes and increase sales of products.

Social enterprises certified by the Ministry of Employment and Labor amount to 1,005 as of June 2011. Among these, five will be selected for the pilot program in the latter half of this year.

This program is expected not only to expand their understanding of intellectual property rights (IPRs) but also to improve their sales by supporting the development of brands and designs which are necessary for product development and marketing.

In addition, this program will help the staff of the selected enterprises understand the importance of IPRs and introduce IP management in their companies.

Starting from 2012, the 32 regional IP centers across the nation, organizations designated by KIPO to comprehensively support IP services, will provide expert consultation not only on brands and designs, but also on overall IP rights including patents. In doing so, KIPO will provide comprehensive services for the procurement of IP rights and their commercialization. As a result, the scale of support is also expected to be expanded.

Further, companies with competitiveness among social enterprises will be selected as global IP star companies and provided with more systematic and focused support to grow into midsized companies with global competitiveness based on IP rights.

Director General Woo Jong-kyun of KIPO’s Intellectual Property Policy Bureau said, “By unfolding policies that would provide active support to and take interest in social enterprises, I believe we would greatly help them commercialize their products using IP rights.” He continued, “Fostering such enterprises is also expected to greatly contribute to the government’s policies on nurturing social enterprise.”