South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korean Intellectual Property Office on Tuesday jointly held an 'R&D to Intellectual Property (R&D2IP) Strategy Consultative Meeting' and discussed ways to strengthen cooperation between the agencies.

Held at the Westin Chosun Hotel, the meeting drew about 20 participants, including Park In-kyu (박인규), head of the Science and Technology Innovation Office at the science ministry, and Kim Yong-sun (김용선), commissioner of the intellectual property office, as well as related organisations involved in IP creation and technology transfer and commercialisation and private-sector experts.

Participants discussed a cooperation system for the R&D process, from project planning and execution to the creation of high-quality patents and on to technology transfer and commercialisation. The intellectual property office proposed an operating plan for the R&D2IP strategy consultative meeting and detailed cooperation agenda items. Kim Beop-min (김법민), head of the Pan-Government Full-Cycle Medical Device R&D Project Group, and former Innovation Challenge Project Promotion Group head Jeong Min-hyung (정민형) delivered presentations related to R&D.

The two agencies will use the meeting as a starting point to run a regular cooperation platform for discussions on IP strategy. They will identify policy planning studies and institutional improvement tasks to flesh out the R&D-IP linkage strategy.

Park said, "For research outcomes to translate into economic outcomes, a strategic linkage between R&D and IP policies is essential." He added, "We will actively cooperate to advance the R&D-IP linkage so that R&D investment helps create a virtuous-cycle research ecosystem in which companies and regions grow together."

Kim said, "Intellectual property is a key strategic asset that links national research outcomes to market performance and wealth creation." He added, "Through the consultative meeting, we will build a virtuous-cycle system that leads to the creation of high-quality patents that can lead global markets and continues through commercialisation and monetisation."