Korea Expressway Corporation uses AI to create 'illustrated guides' for 106 patents made freely available

[Financial News] Patent documents packed with text and drawings have been transformed into illustrated guides that can be understood at a glance.
According to the Korea Expressway Corporation on the 5th, the project began in response to complaints from the field that patent gazettes were difficult to read. Patent gazettes, official documents issued by the Ministry of Intellectual Property to make patent information public, are filled with text-heavy explanations, complex drawings and difficult technical terms. As a result, startups and small and medium-sized businesses with limited specialist staff struggled even to understand what the technologies were. The corporation used generative AI to reorganize the information so that the technologies and their uses could be understood intuitively.
The technology guides and insight books are available under the 'Intellectual Property Held by the Corporation' menu on the 'Expressway Technology Market.' Companies interested in using a patent can download and fill out a form, then mail it to the Korea Expressway Corporation's Legal Affairs Department or submit it in person.
Since 2023, the Korea Expressway Corporation has operated a 'Free Patent Sharing' program as part of efforts to foster cooperation between the private and public sectors, making 106 of its 548 patents available. It also helps commercialize the patents, rather than simply transferring them. Last July, it announced a pilot program, 'Support for Small Business Commercialization Using Highway Intangible Assets,' which provides follow-up research and development support to commercialize patents shared for free. The program provides up to 200 million won per project, covering up to half of the project costs for a maximum of one year. The government has also run the 'Technology Sharing' program since 2013, transferring unused patents held by large companies and public institutions to small and midsize businesses free of charge. As of 2023, 33 large companies and public institutions had transferred 14,687 technologies free of charge to 1,502 companies.
A Korea Expressway Corporation official said, "Taking into account feedback from the field that patent information is difficult to understand, we used AI to reorganize it so that anyone can grasp it intuitively," adding, "We will continue to expand free patent sharing in various ways and actively support the launch and growth of small businesses."

[email protected] Jeong Gyeong-su Reporter