Direct filing of design applications by designers gets easier with submission of 3D drawings for designs
- The number of design applications with 3D drawings increased dramatically over the last 10 years-
The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) analyzed the increase in submission rate for design applications with 3D drawings and found that it increased 22.3% over the last 10 years.
Such rate is 20.7% higher than that for total design application filings during the same period, for which the increase rate of total design application filings was 1.6%.
The filing of design applications with submission of 3D drawings* started in Korea in 2010, a world first, and the number of such filings began with 796 cases in the first year and reached 3,483 cases in 2019, which shows a tendency of continuous increase.
* The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) currently allows submission of 3D drawings (enforced since September 28, 2015).
<The number of design applications filed with submission of 3D drawings during the most recent 10 years and the rate relative to the total number of cases >
Filing of design applications with submission of 3D drawings makes it easier for a designer to file an application directly, and it is convenient since costs and time for appointing an agency can be reduced. For examiners, it has the advantage of facilitating efficient examination of cases since complicated forms can be more easily comprehended through 3D drawings.
The following table shows that the number of cases related to civil engineering and construction products were 4,741 (19.1%), which took first place, next came cases related to housing facility products at 4,309 (17.4%), and 4,120 (16.6%) were cases related to clothing and miscellaneous products.
〈Share of design applications with submission of 3D drawings during the most recent 10 years by products〉
With respect to type of applicant, cases filed by small and medium-sized businesses were 12,497 (47.2%), which took first place in the rankings, followed by individuals, who filed 12,130 cases (45.8%), public institutions and the government filed 776 cases (2.9%), medium-sized enterprise filed 661 cases (2.3%), and large companies filed 415 cases (1.6%).
When reviewing the total cases filed in 2019, it seems that small and medium-sized businesses relatively prefer filing applications with submission of 3D drawings.
〈Share of applications filed with submission of 3D drawings, submission by applicant type〉
〈Share of total applications by applicant type〉
Meanwhile, internationally standardizing the submission of 3D drawing models based on the experience of the filing of design applications with 3D drawings in Korea is being discussed in the annual meetings of the Committees on WIPO Standards (CWS) held by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Accordingly, it can be considered that the advanced method of submitting 3D drawings in Korea has reached the stage of being internationally recognized.
The Section Chief of the Design Examination Policy Division stated, “Filing of design applications with submission of 3D drawings increased for 10 years and has stabilized recently, so it seems that such filing system has been successfully implemented” and also said, “We will do our best to invent and develop design systems which can be useful and necessary for people such as small and medium-sized businesses, individuals and others.”
[Source: KIPO]