The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) commences substantive examination of a patent application only after a formal request for examination has been filed. The deadline for filing a request for examination was recently shortened from 5 to 3 years after the filing date for applications filed on or after March 1, 2017. KIPO generally issues a first office action around 12 to 16 months after the filing of an examination request ("Normal Track Examination"). However, this pace of examination can be substantially expedited or deferred.

When faster examination is desired, expedited examination is available under certain circumstance set forth in the Korean Patent Act, e.g., via the patent prosecution highway (PPH) program, when there is an on-going use of the claimed invention by a third party, when a prior art search is conducted by a KIPO-designated agency, etc. ("Expedited Track Examination"). To seek Expedited Track Examination, a separate request for expedited examination must be filed concurrently or after the normal examination request. If accepted, Expedited Track Examination reduces the average pendency of the first office action to about 2 to 4 months, which is about 10 to 12 months faster than normal circumstances. However, the rest of the examination proceeds at roughly the same pace under both the regular and expedited tracks. Thus, the time savings from an Expedited Track Examination are front-loaded.

The timelines for Normal and Expedited Track Examinations are summarized below:

<Normal Track Examination & Expedited Track Examination>

Conversely, an applicant who wishes to slow down the pace of examination may request a deferred start to substantive examination ("Deferred Track Examination"). While an application is considered withdrawn if an examination request is not made within 3 years from its filing date, an applicant can maintain the pendency of an application for up to 5 years by opting for a Deferred Track Examination.

A request for a Deferred Track Examination must be filed concurrently or within 9 months of a normal request for examination, but the applicant may push back the start of substantive examination by up to 2 years from the date of the examination request and up to 5 years from the filing date of the application.

The timeline for a Deferred Track Examination is summarized below: 

<Deferred Track Examination>

Accordingly, applicants can use this flexibility in managing the pace of examination to match with their prosecution strategies.