July 1–Aug. 14 event marks KIPRIS' 30th anniversary, inviting public to discover hidden IP in everyday life
A nationwide event inviting the public to discover intellectual property hidden in everyday life kicks off Tuesday.
The Intellectual Property Office of Korea will hold the "Korea Intellectual Property Search Challenge" from July 1 through Aug. 14 to mark the 30th anniversary of its Intellectual Property Rights Information Service, known as KIPRIS.
KIPRIS is a free public service that allows anyone to search and view about 140 million intellectual property records collected from 29 countries, including South Korea.
The challenge is a participatory event in which anyone with an interest in intellectual property can photograph patents, trademarks and designs found in their surroundings, then verify the corresponding IP rights using KIPRIS.
To take part, participants photograph IP rights they find around them, post the photos on social media — Instagram or a blog — with the designated hashtags (#키프리스30주년, #지식재산검색챌린지), search for the relevant IP rights on KIPRIS, and submit the KIPRIS search results along with their social media post URLs through a Naver form.
The event features three missions: the "IP Hunter Master," for finding the greatest number of IP rights; the "30th Anniversary Special Hunter," for finding rights filed or registered in 1996; and the "Time Capsule Hunter," for finding the oldest rights. An awards ceremony is scheduled for September, with prizes for top performers and participation awards for all entrants.
Jeong Jae-hwan, director general of the IP Information Bureau at the Intellectual Property Office of Korea, said the 30th anniversary of KIPRIS was "a milestone made together with the people who have used the service," adding that the office would "do its best to make KIPRIS even more accessible to the public."
kwonhl@heraldcorp.com
