The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) announced on September 27, 2025, that its electronic filing platform, "Patent Portal (www.patent.go.kr)," is experiencing a service interruption and users cannot currently submit documents online. This outage is a result of a fire at the data center of the National Information Resources Service under the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.
The core impact is on document submission; however, fee payment services have now been restored. Applicants can currently use all channels, including credit card, bank transfer, and virtual accounts, to make payments normally. If fee obligations do not appear in the system, please try again after 09:00 AM on Monday, September 29, 2025.
Regarding application deadlines, KIPO has provided clear guidance. For the vast majority of electronic documents, including those for divisional applications, priority-claiming applications, and intermediate documents, the legal submission deadlines will be automatically extended to the first business day after the system failure is resolved.
A crucial exception applies to first-time filings. Since the filing date for new applications cannot be retroactively recognized, applicants intending to submit a first filing must use in-person submission at a KIPO office (Daejeon Headquarters or Seoul Branch) or mail to establish their filing date.
For alternative submission methods: International applications (PCT) can be submitted in paper form directly to KIPO. For all mailed documents, please note the rules for determining the filing date: general documents are considered filed on the postmark date, while documents for rights registration applications and PCT international applications are considered filed on the date they are received by KIPO. For the latter categories, in-person submission is strongly recommended in urgent cases. Please also be aware that the postal service is currently experiencing instability; applicants should verify service status with the post office before opting for mail.
KIPO has apologized for the significant inconvenience caused by this disruption and assured applicants that efforts are underway to restore normal service as quickly as possible. All applicants are advised to monitor the official KIPO website and the Patent Portal for the latest recovery updates.
Source: https://www.kipo.go.kr/ko/kpoBultnDetail.do?menuCd=SCD0200609&ntatcSeq=19648&aprchId=BUT0000020&sysCd=SCD02
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