How it differs from provisional and PCT, claim drafting, expedited examination — the core eight questions for a regular Korean patent filing.
A formal filing with KIPO to obtain a Korean patent. Once granted, you hold the exclusive right to practice the invention in Korea for 20 years from the filing date. Unlike provisional or PCT, claims, drawings and abstract must be in proper KIPO format.
A provisional only secures a filing date quickly. PCT entry is the route for international applications already on file. A regular patent application starts the Korean grant process directly — the most common path for Korean applicants who are not relying on a foreign priority.
The inventor is the natural person who conceived the invention. The applicant is the individual or entity that will hold the right. Employee-invention cases typically separate the two (inventor = employee, applicant = company); both fields support multiple entries.
Title, specification, claims, drawings (if applicable) and abstract — uploadable as PDF, HWP or DOC. Your attorney reviews and adapts them to KIPO format. Full drafting service is also available as an add-on.
Claims define your scope of protection. More claims build multi-layered defenses but increase KIPO official fees. The exact total updates in real time on the checkout page as you change claim count, so you can compare scope versus cost easily.
Base package = KIPO official fees (claim and page based) + attorney review + POA handling + receipts. Optional items (expedited examination, office action response) are billed separately and disclosed up front before you commit.
Typically 18–24 months: filing → procedural exam → substantive exam → grant decision → registration fee. Office actions extend the timeline by their response window. Every change is mirrored on your dashboard with email alerts.
If you meet the criteria (public interest, commercial implementation, etc.), you typically receive an examination result (grant or office action) within 6 months. iphere reviews eligibility upfront and prepares the supporting statement; the KIPO expedited fee is added to your invoice.
iphere runs on infrastructure certified to SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001, and HIPAA. All data is encrypted with AES-256 at rest and TLS in transit, and per-user Row-Level Security blocks access by anyone other than yourself at the SQL level. If you use the AI Specification Assistant, your inputs are not used for model training (this is the default policy of the commercial AI API), and the architecture provides materially stronger protection than the ordinary email or messaging channels typically used for patent work. The Korean patent attorney is bound by a lifelong duty of confidentiality under the Patent Attorney Act. See the 'Security Policy' link in the footer for the full architecture.