Starting from March 1, KAIST's new policy on provision of fees for patent, notified on December 28, 2012, has been implemented. The two main changes are a more selective provision of fees for filing patent application through invention evaluations and an enforcement of KAIST-designated patent attorney's office system. The purpose of the policy amendment is to enhance the efficiency in managing intellectual property rights.

So far, provision of fees has been restricted to domestic patent applications. Under the changed system, only outstanding inventions will be selected for funding to file domestic and foreign patent applications.

Before the change, domestic patent application fees were provided by the university, while foreign patent application fees were paid by the inventor himself. Under the new policy, both domestic and foreign patent application fees can be provided for by the university based on selective invention evaluation results. However, if an inventor pays the fees with his research fund, the university can file domestic or foreign patent applications regardless of the evaluation results.

The invention evaluation procedure consists of invention reporting, review of the invention report form and commissioning, and first and second phase invention evaluation. Each invention will be categorised into one of S, A, B, C, and D grades.

Moreover, all jobs related to the application and registration of intellectual property rights are commissioned to the KAIST-designated patent attorney's offices, which is under financial support by the university. This amendment is pursuant to Article 16 of the Operating Rules of Intellectual Property Rights, approved at the Technology Commercialization Committee Meeting held on October 30, 2012.

World's well-known universities such as Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Techonology assist filing patent applications for only inventions that are considered as having high potential for technology transfer and commercialization based on their evaluation results.

KAIST expects that the amendment will maximize utilization of research and development accomplishments by securing global intellectual properties and promoting the transfer of technologies.