On the sidelines of the State visit to France by the President of the Republic of Korea, Lee Jae-myung, the Director General of the INPI, Pascal Faure, welcomed the Minister of Intellectual Property, Kim Yong Sun, to Paris on September 8 for a series of discussions aimed at strengthening and deepening cooperation between our two countries in the field of intellectual property.

These exchanges are of particular importance as this year marks the 140th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between France and the Republic of Korea. This is the third meeting between Mr. Pascal Faure and Mr. Kim Yong Sun this year, following those held in Seoul and Geneva on the sidelines of the recent General Assemblies of the World Intellectual Property Organization.

Today, this materializes with the signing of a first Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on intellectual property between the INPI and the Ministry of Intellectual Property of Korea (MOIP), selected among the few deliverables of the state visit and presented at an official ceremony at the Elysee Palace in front of Presidents Emmanuel Macron and Lee Jae-myung.

This signing confirms, at the highest level of the State, the strategic role of intellectual property and its growing importance in our cooperation with the MOIP, as a national strategic asset.

The new MoU provides a general and renewed framework for the cooperation previously conducted with the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), which was elevated to the status of a Ministry in October 2025.

It provides for the development of exchanges of information, expertise and good practices in various fields related to intellectual property, particularly on issues related to artificial intelligence, as well as on the protection, enhancement and defense of intellectual property rights.

The fight against counterfeiting is a key focus of our cooperation in this regard. This issue is crucial for both our countries and is one of the priorities of this MoU, which reflects our shared commitment to strengthening our actions in protecting and respecting intellectual property rights.

In this context, the MOIP visit also provided an opportunity to organize a meeting at UNIFAB on the morning of September 8th with key French stakeholders involved in the fight against counterfeiting. This meeting, attended by Senator Catherine Dumas, co-chair of the CNAC and also chair of the France-South Korea Friendship Group in the Senate, as well as representatives from the Directorate General of Customs and Indirect Taxes, allowed for the sharing of experiences and best practices with our Korean counterparts.

Source: National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI), France, 2026-09-08. Original: https://www.inpi.fr/en/in-one/signing-of-a-memorandum-of-understanding-with-the-Republic-of-Korea