South Korea's KIPO Upgraded to the Ministry of Intellectual Property (MOIP): Establishes "Intellectual Property Dispute Response Bureau" to Comprehensively Strengthen National-Level IP Governance

Starting from October 1, 2025, the former Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) was officially elevated to the Ministry of Intellectual Property (MOIP), directly under the Office of the Prime Minister. This institutional adjustment signifies that South Korea has elevated intellectual property work to a higher level in national governance, shifting from the operational management of a single department to a centrally coordinated strategic and policy layout for intellectual property at the national level.

Previously, KIPO was under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, primarily responsible for the examination and registration functions in areas such as patents, trademarks, and designs. Meanwhile, several other departments, including the Ministry of Science and ICT, were respectively in charge of related tasks such as handling domestic and international intellectual property disputes, intellectual property protection, and the creation and utilization of intellectual property. This multi-headed management model in practice led to insufficient comprehensive response capabilities and inconsistent coordination regarding intellectual property disputes and protection issues, exhibiting a certain degree of "fragmentation."

In this round of reform, the South Korean government aims to strengthen the position of intellectual property in national strategy by elevating KIPO to MOIP and simultaneously restructuring the organization. MOIP will uniformly lead intellectual property policy and functional allocation to enhance overall coordination and rapid response capabilities.