8.19.2025

[International IP Briefing] US, KR

 

US


USPTO Announces Return to In-Person Hearings for all Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) Hearings

 On July 23, 2025, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced that starting September 1, all Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) hearings will be held in person unless there is a showing of good cause.

(Overview) 

Under the America Invents Act (AIA), parties to a trial and appellants in a patent appeal may request an oral hearing to present their arguments before the PTAB.

The Oral Hearing Guide, published on August 31, 2023, added an all-virtual hearing option for trials, allowing participating parties to present their oral arguments remotely. Accordingly, parties can choose their method of attending a hearing from the following options: ① appearing at a designated hearing location, ② appearing in person at a USPTO office, ③ appearing via video conference, or ④ appearing by phone. In addition, for non-confidential hearings, the PTAB allows the public to observe the hearing proceedings, and they can choose between ① attending in person at a designated hearing location or ② watching remotely via video conference.

(Key Points) 

The key points of the announcement, effective September 1, 2025, are as follows:

·         In-person attendance requirement – All parties involved in a PTAB proceeding must attend the hearing in person unless there is a showing of good cause.

·         Good cause – Parties may be granted an exception to attend a hearing remotely if there is a showing of good cause, such as financial hardship, medical emergency, or other similar obstacles to in-person attendance.

·         Individualized remote attendance approval – The approval for one party to attend remotely does not automatically constitute good cause for other parties to also attend remotely.

·         Hearing locations – Hearings will be held at one of the USPTO's offices, and parties may request a specific USPTO office location.

·         Public proceedings – The public, who are not parties, may attend hearings remotely as before and must submit a request by email at least three business days before the scheduled hearing date to attend either remotely or in person.

 

Link to the original text of the guide: https://www.ptab.info/PDFS/230800-G-ROHG.pdf

USPTO Headquarters (Alexandria, VA), Southwest Regional Outreach Office (Dallas), Rocky Mountain Regional Outreach Office (Denver), Elijah J. MaCoy Midwest Regional Outreach Office (Detroit), Western Regional Outreach Office (San Jose, CA) (Source: USPTO)

(Sources: https://www.uspto.gov/about-us/news-updates/uspto-returning-person-ptab-hearings )


 

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KR


KIPO Shortens Opposition Period Following Trademark Publication

On July 22, 2025, the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) announced that a revised Trademark Act, which shortens the opposition period, has gone into effect.

(Key Details)

 KIPO stated that the revision is expected to speed up the process for applicants to obtain trademark rights by shortening the opposition period from two months to 30 days. KIPO also explained the trademark opposition system and the background for shortening the opposition period.

Overview of the Trademark Opposition System

▪The trademark registration process consists of: application, publication, and finally, a decision on registration after the opposition period.

·     The trademark opposition system allows anyone to file an opposition within the specified period from the publication date of a trademark application that a trademark examiner found no grounds to refuse. This system enables public participation in the examination process.

Background for Shortening the Opposition Period

▪As of June 2025, it took approximately 12.8 months to begin the examination of a domestic trademark application and 10.5 months for an international one. There have been requests to shorten the opposition period to allow for faster acquisition of rights.

·     Even though oppositions were filed for only about 1% of all published applications, the remaining 99% of trademark applications still had to wait for two months.

 Application and Expected Effects of Shortening the Opposition Period

▪The revised Trademark Act applies to trademark applications published on or after July 22, 2025. It is expected that the registration decision for the majority of published trademarks will be expedited.

▪Even with the shortened opposition period, information about a trademark application is disclosed upon filing. This means third parties can still submit opinions on the applied-for trademark at any time through the Information Submission System.

▪Additionally, the period for amending the grounds for opposition has been extended to 30 days. This means the time available for third parties to submit their opinions will effectively remain at its previous level.

▪KIPO emphasized that it will continue to operate the trademark examination system in a balanced manner, ensuring sufficient opportunities for public examination while also reducing the processing time for examinations. They also highlighted that information about the new system will be provided in the decision notice for publication.

(Source:  WWW.kipo.go.kr 2025.7.22)

 

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8.18.2025

50 Jurisdictions! One Platform! Unlimited Possibilities!

 

 We’re thrilled to announce a significant leap forward in providing our clients with unparalleled global patent data coverage, keeping pace with the ever-evolving landscape of technological innovation.

 WIPS Global, which previously offered comprehensive patent search services with 16 countries' full-text data, will now expand its reach. Effective this September, we are adding full-text data from 34 additional jurisdictions, bringing our total full-text data coverage to an impressive 50 jurisdictions!

 Why Does 50-jurisdictions Full-Text Data Matter?

Gain a Competitive Edge: Quickly identify global technology trends and competitor patent activities to solidify your market position.

Minimize Risks: Proactively pinpoint and develop strategies to avoid potential patent infringement, preventing unnecessary disputes.

Accelerate Innovation: Access a vast repository of global patent data to spark new ideas and guide R&D, thereby accelerating innovative technological development.

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Unrivaled Coverage: We boast global-leading data coverage, encompassing patent data from major technological powerhouses as well as rapidly emerging economies.

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In-depth competitor analysis and technology trend identification: Analyze which technology sectors your main competitors are investing in to predict their R&D direction and market strategy.

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Let's take a closer look at the new and innovative WIPS Global, with data from 50 countries.

< the New 34 jurisdictions full-text >


**The images below are screenshots taken from the WIPS Global test server. The new 34 jurisdictions will be available in early September.**

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 This expansion to 50-country full-text data coverage is more than just an enhancement to our solution; it means providing patent practitioners with a powerful tool that maximizes your work efficiency and ultimately contributes to your company's success.

 No longer worry about missing critical information due to limited data. Experience the panorama of global patent information with our solution and open new horizons in your patent work.




 

Leading the coexistence with true AI: Multi-modal technology and patents

 

 Samsung Electronics recently made headlines by announcing its plan to build a "personalized AI ecosystem" that reflects user habits, centering on "multimodal AI," which unifies and recognizes various forms of information, such as voice and visual data.

 Samsung's ultimate goal is to implement a "customized AI assistant" that understands the user's intent and context through all electronic devices and peripherals within Samsung's AI ecosystem, not just AI confined to smartphones. Today, let's explore the technologies hidden within the AI assistants that are becoming a part of our daily lives.

New Galaxy Fold7 equipped with multi-modal AI features
(source: Samsung Newsroom, https://bit.ly/3GzlsWc)

"Who did you call?" – Interaction between voice command devices and AI assistants

With the advancement of technology, the number of voice recognition-enabled devices is steadily increasing, and the importance of "intelligent assistants" is also growing. In the past, voice recognition was limited to merely "pressing a button with your mouth" as it couldn't recognize commands not pre-learned. However, today, it exhibits sophisticated and advanced recognition capabilities, allowing it to converse with people.

wipsglobal.com
KR10-2023-7034829, Multi-modal interaction with intelligent assistants in voice command devices

 Samsung Electronics recently registered a patent titled "Multi-Modal interaction with intelligent assistants in voice command devices." This technology is applicable to a wider range of electronic devices, including Samsung's home appliances and cars, in addition to devices belonging to the "Galaxy ecosystem" such as smartphones, tablets, and watches manufactured by Samsung.

 This technology can be described as one that identifies which device a user used to call an intelligent assistant in an environment with multiple voice recognition-enabled devices, and then determines how the assistant will interact on that particular device.

 Considering the current trend where multiple devices are aiming for integration into a single "intelligent assistant," this technology can enable AI to perform commands accurately and intelligently. As a secondary benefit, it can also prevent the so-called "chorus phenomenon," where all surrounding devices respond simultaneously when the smartphone's AI assistant is called.

"How Multimodal AI Becomes Smarter" – Multimodal Data Learning Method

Multimodal AI often requires the ability to process complex information compared to simpler, traditional AI methods (e.g., text-to-text AI). This is because it needs to simultaneously recognize information from two or more different domains, find correlations between the data, and provide appropriate answers.

wipsglobal.com
KR10-2018-0029403, Method and device for learning multimodal data

 According to a patent disclosed by Samsung, multimodal AI's data learning method involves processing different signals in their respective networks, then understanding the context of these signals, analyzing their correlations, and training the process to deduce the user's hidden intent.

 Let's imagine showing a wardrobe with a dress and training clothes and saying, "Pick an outfit for a party." The AI understands the contexts: "something needs to be found in the wardrobe that meets the conditions" and "an outfit for a party is needed." It then analyzes their correlation to deduce the intent: "the user wants to find a formal outfit for a party." Based on this deduced intent, the AI concludes, "A dress would be good."

 The learning method of multimodal AI aims to equip AI with broader problem-solving capabilities, enabling it to be used in any situation by cultivating its ability to understand the context of multi-party information and extract hidden information.

"Multimodal AI that Sees Like a Real Person?" – Multi-Object Visual Search Technology

As mentioned earlier, the ultimate goal of multimodal AI is to implement an "intelligent assistant that understands intent and context and executes commands accurately." Despite its advancement to the point where it can process information by sharing the current situation like conversing with a friend, compared to conventional AI, there's still a long way to go as it requires prior learning to know where to find visual information to execute a given command.

wipsglobal.com
KR10-2023-0104283, Multi-modal deep learning model for multi-object visual search task

 However, Korea University's patent, "Multi-modal deep learning model for multi-object visual search task", might enable the implementation of sophisticated AI when combined with multimodal AI. This patent concerns a method of predicting the user's intended focus based on information about objects related to a given image, by simultaneously utilizing text and image analysis technologies.

 For example, let's assume the command is "Find the oven and refrigerator in this kitchen." Conventional methods might take an inefficient focus path, such as scanning the ceiling first and then moving to other areas if no focus path is specified. However, if this model is applied, it can extract features like "located on the floor or wall" from the semantic properties of "refrigerator" and "oven," allowing it to adopt an efficient focus path, such as scanning the walls or floor first and then moving to their surrounding areas.

 If such technology is combined with real-time multimodal AI services like Google's "Gemini Live," it could facilitate the implementation of AI that truly "sees and speaks" like a human, by quickly processing information transmitted from the user.

Solving "I couldn't find a suitable answer for OO" – Proper Noun Learning Method

A drawback of traditional speech recognition AI was its inability to correctly recognize user utterances if the words were not pre-learned (e.g., Samsung's Bixby misinterpreting "Huoguo" as "capture"), or its tendency to inaccurately deduce words, leading to incorrect answers. These shortcomings can be a fatal weakness in the recent trend aiming for AI that naturally communicates with humans.

wipsglobal.com
KR10-2011-0079586, Apparatus and method for adding new proper nouns to language model in a continuous speech recognizing system

 This patent, filed by ETRI, is a technology that, when encountering a proper noun not present in the existing learning model, compares and contrasts it with existing learning data to filter out appropriate sentence candidates, thereby acquiring new information about the proper noun. When this technology is integrated with multimodal AI, the AI can learn new proper nouns by combining them with other information when encountering unfamiliar objects or unheard proper nouns. Through this, we can expect more natural interaction from AI.

Multimodal Technology: Accelerating True Coexistence with AI

 Today, we've explored multimodal AI technology. As AI development rapidly advances, its presence in our daily lives is also increasing. The development of multimodal AI not only makes our lives more convenient but also allows us to dream of coexistence with AI, making these technologies worthy of our attention.