Korea and Mexico signed an agreement to accelerate the examination of patent applications, the Korean Intellectual Property Office said on Monday.

The Patent Prosecution Highway allows applicants who have successfully obtained a patent from the Korean office pursue an accelerated patent examination in Mexico, or vice versa. The national office said the deal will cut the period between application and grant from an average of three and a half years to a month.

“KIPO Commissioner Lee Soo-won and his Mexican counterpart Rodrigo Roque on Friday signed the PPH agreement and also a memorandum of understanding to cooperate in the field of intellectual property,” KIPO said in a statement on Monday.

The agreement, due to come into effect in July, is the 11th KIPO has made to speed up the international patent process for Korean businesses wishing to expand abroad. 

“Mexico is a fast growing export destination and a bridge to the rest of the Latin American countries. The highway of convenience we formed with Mexico will greatly expedite acquisition of intellectual property rights by Korean businesses.” Commissioner Lee said.

Korea also has PPH agreements with Japan, the United States, Denmark, Canada, Britain, Russia, Finland, Germany, Spain and China. The number of patent applications in these 11 countries makes up more than 70 percent of the total in the world.

KIPO said the new agreement with Mexico will greatly help Korean exporters doing business in North America, now that the highway of convenience exists in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.

Under the terms of the agreement the PPH will run for an initial pilot period before it is fully implemented in both countries.

The office began running a pilot PPH program with China from March 1, allowing an express way for Korean businesses to secure patent rights in arguably the world’s biggest patent market.

Separately, KIPO established a help center called IP-DESK in Los Angeles on Monday to provide assistance to the Korean businesses in the U.S. The IP-DESK team provides expertise, helping businesses to navigate problems in the field of intellectual property.

KIPO currently runs seven such help centers including one each in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Qingdao, Shenyang, Ho Chi Min City, and Bangkok.

“With this new IP-DESK in L.A., we successfully strengthened infrastructure abroad to help ease difficulties in attaining and protecting intellectual property rights in the U.S. and Latin America, which are major export markets of Korean businesses.” Lee said. 

By Cynthia J. Kim  (cynthiak@heraldcorp.com)