South Korean government solidifies policy to maintain number of patents for city duty-free shops; considers proposal to improve patent fee system

The South Korean government has decided to maintain the current number of patents for city-wide duty-free shops at 16, while continuing discussions on ways to improve the patent fee system.
The Ministry of Strategy and Finance held a tax seminar hosted by Jeong Ju-hoon, head of the tax office, at the Korea Financial Information Service in Jung-gu, Seoul on the 12th.
The committee is an organization that deliberates important matters related to the duty-free shop system, and announced this policy at the 4th Duty-Free Shop System Steering Committee meeting.
The meeting discussed three topics: trends and new patents for city-based duty-free shops, the current state of the duty-free shop patent system, and the results of a research project on patent fees for duty-free shops and the direction of future improvements to the system.
A review of new patents shows that despite the recovery in tourism due to the global reopening of China and other countries, the performance of duty-free shops is still slow to recover.
Considering this situation and the lack of demand for new patents in local governments, the government decided to maintain the current number of patents. By region, the number of patents was 8 in Seoul, 10 in Busan, and 10 in Seoul.
The tax rate for patent fees for duty-free shops will be maintained at the current rate based on sales revenue, taking into account the results of research activities.
In addition, measures to improve the patent fee system will be left to discussion at the next committee meeting, after gathering the business performance forecasts of duty-free shops and the opinions of the tourism industry and experts.