The government is moving to improve regulations that hinder technology transfer, commercialization, and startup growth by easing the mandatory shareholding ratio of technology holding companies in subsidiaries from 20% to 10%, thereby making it easier to invest in new technology startups.

The Regulatory Innovation Promotion Team of the Office for Government Policy Coordination recently announced that it will report to the Regulatory Reform Committee the 'Regulatory Improvement Plan for Enhancing National R&D Results' prepared together with six related ministries (Ministry of Science and ICT, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Ministry of Education, Ministry of SMEs and Startups, Ministry of Strategy and Finance, and Korean Intellectual Property Office), and that each ministry will implement it, thereby moving to eliminate various regulations that impede the utilization and diffusion of national R&D results.

The task force, together with related organizations such as the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Evaluation and Planning (KISTEP) and the Science and Technology Policy Institute (STEPI), discovered vivid regulatory cases that hinder the utilization and dissemination of research results from research and corporate fields and reviewed improvement measures.

Accordingly, six items were reviewed in detail: △Research institute start-up and post-start-up growth/support △Extension of leave/part-time job allowance period for start-up △Increased patent productivity △Resolution of difficulties in establishing/operating a technology transfer/commercialization organization △Comprehensive reform of public(research) technology transfer method △Relaxation of technology fee collection/payment/use standards, etc. As a result, improvement measures for 15 regulations were prepared.

First, we will improve regulations that hinder commercialization or start-up activities based on public R&D results or hinder their continued growth.

Technology holding company and subsidiary stock ownership ratio for commercialization of public R&D results As the related laws and regulations are operated differently and rigidly, this is becoming an obstacle to investment attraction activities and causing confusion in field application. Therefore, the subsidiary stock ownership ratio, which is different in each related law, has been relaxed to 10% or more and unified. In addition, in order to support investment attraction activation, in the case of industry-academia-research cooperation technology holding companies, the 30% in-kind (technology) contribution ratio of the total capital will be applied only when they are first established.

As the allowable periods of leave of absence or concurrent employment for technology commercialization/start-up of executives and employees differed across government ministries (Ministry of Science and ICT, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Ministry of SMEs and Startups, Ministry of Education), causing confusion in field application, it was decided to expand the period to include not only standing and non-standing executives of public/research institutes but also employees, allowing leave of absence or concurrent employment for up to 6 years, but delegating detailed procedures to the autonomy of each agency.

In order to create excellent patents, etc., a ‘quality management system for patent value assessment results will be established’, while autonomy will also be granted to the processing of unused patents.

Despite efforts such as operating a pre-filing review system prior to patent application, problems such as increased administrative burden and management costs due to excessive patent application, examination, and maintenance are occurring, and not only is the administrative burden increased due to regulations on approval by the head of the central administrative agency when giving up unused patents, but there have also been unnecessary maintenance costs due to delays in giving up. In order to strengthen qualitative evaluation and pre- and post-patent management, the 'National R&D Evaluation Standard Guidelines' will be revised and reflected in the 'University and Research Institute Research Support System Evaluation', and autonomy will be granted to universities, research institutes, etc. to promote maintenance and management of intellectual property, including patent abandonment, according to the institution's own standards and procedures.

The obligation to establish a technology transfer/commercialization organization was abolished according to the characteristics of the organization, allowing for flexible use of internal and external resources.
br /> In response to the frequent cases of ineffective or formal operation in institutions with low demand due to the mandatory installation of an internal dedicated organization for technology transfer and commercialization that did not take into account the characteristics of the institution, it was decided to strengthen the autonomy of the operation of the dedicated organization and abolish the regulation requiring the installation of an internal dedicated organization in public institutions so that they can flexibly utilize internal and external resources according to the characteristics and capabilities of the institution.

It was decided to allow R&D performance-holding institutions to autonomously decide on the method of technology transfer by considering the characteristics of the technology and corporate demand.

The difficulty in exercising exclusive rights due to the ‘principle of non-exclusive license for public R&D results’ according to the Technology Transfer Act has ultimately become an obstacle to technology transfer. Therefore, the principle of non-exclusive license for public R&D technologies will be abolished, and the method of transfer, such as non-exclusive license, exclusive license, or assignment, will be decided upon autonomously considering the characteristics of the technology, utilization plans, etc.

By eliminating regulations that arise in research fields related to the collection, payment, and use of technology fees resulting from technology transfer, administrative burden and confusion are minimized.

The enactment and implementation of the National Research and Development Innovation Act has led to changes in the payment method for current technology royalties, the definition of technology royalties comprehensively stated in amounts, usage criteria, etc., which have caused confusion in the field and increased unnecessary administrative burdens. In order to reduce confusion and unnecessary administrative burdens in the research field, the National Research and Development Innovation Act Manual published every year clearly reflects uncertainties.

An official from the promotion team said, “The promotion team plans to continue to work with relevant ministries to improve national R&D performance, especially to create an environment for creative and innovative research and to actively discover and improve regulations that hinder the use of new technologies and new industries.” />