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Why South Korean patent holders under the age of 5 are increasing

By on December 16, 2020

According to South Korea’s ‘Patent Situation By Age Report’,  159 out of 1,897 recorded patent holders are children below age five. The updated report released by the Korean Intellectual Property Office covers a period of 9 years from 2011 to 2020.

The rapidly increasing number of patent registrations by South Korean minors created a stir in Japan and was the subject of discussions on Japanese TV.

In 2020, 60 applications with names of  children under 5 were filed where one had 6 patents registered to a single name. This number is 6 times higher compared to 2019. In Korea, patent registration by minors is not new.  The trend started 16 years ago. Generally, the subject of patent applications filed in the country are IoT  and technology-related.

The youngest inventor ever to be granted a patent for his invention of “Sweeping Device With Two Heads” was British Sam Haughton. The patent application was filed in 2006 when Sam was 3 and granted in 2008 when Sam was 5 years old.
But Korea’s increasing interest in patent registration appears to be driven by something other than the original purpose.
Education has become an obsession for many Korean families who view admission to a good university as a crucial step for a future with financial security, status and prosperity. This has given rise to a fiercely competitive environment where many Korean parents go to great lengths to support their children’s goals. That means cram schools, raising TOEIC test results with the help of expensive private tutors and – making them patent holders- even if it’s only on paper. The idea is to make the child’s credentials look good to give him competitive advantage in gaining admission to a good university.

The patent application system in Korea is relatively simple and can be done online without age restriction. There is no limit on the number of people on one application. One dad who used this to his advantage ended up getting his son into trouble.

The dad, a professor at a private university in South Korea was among the hundreds of parents who took advantage of the system. In August this year, he filed for a patent registration and made his son a co-holder for a research of which he was not a par.  After the professor’s son gained admission  to a junior medical college – with the help of a patent acquisition, it later became clear that it was not his own academic ability that got him a patent registration.  The son was later sued by the school and eventually sentenced to a 10- month jail term and a 2-year suspended sentence.

What does the Japanese law on patent say?

Article 49, No. 6 of the Japanese Patent Law prohibits a person other than the inventor or a person who owns the right to invention, from filing an application and obtaining  a patent. In addition, a patent registration obtained by a person who has no legal ownership of subject invention will be made invalid according to Article 123, Paragraph 1, Item 6. 

 

About Vivienne Lee