Deposit Your Resources

Korean Collection for Type Cultures

KCTC provides general, patent, and safety deposit services.

Patent Deposit

Patent DepositTitle_Arrow
Title_ArrowDocuments needed for Patent Deposit
  • 1. Request form : Select either a domestic or an international request form.
  • 2. Payment receipt : Any forms of receipt are accepted.
    * KCTC does not deposit LMO strains.
Title_ArrowIntroduction to Patent Resource Deposit

The KCTC has accepted the deposit of microorganisms for patent purposes from South Korea and other countries since it was designated as a depository institution of microorganisms for patent purposes by the Korean Intellectual Property Office in 1981. In addition, since we acquired the status of an international depositary authority for patented microorganisms from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) according to the Budapest Treaty in June 1990, we have implemented the Rules of the Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Microorganisms for the Purposes of Patent Procedure for the deposit of international patent strains. Except some special cases, the application of a patent related to microorganisms requires that the microorganisms should be deposited in an authorized deposit organization and a certificate of deposit issued by the deposit organization should be submitted to the Korean Intellectual Property Office according to the Patent Act. The microorganism deposit organization verifies the survival of the deposited microorganism and stores it for a required period based on the regulations of the deposit.

* Using courier services (DHL, FedEx, UPS, etc.)
Address : (56212) 181 Ipsin-gil, Jeongeup-si, Jeollabuk-do, Republic of Korea
Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB)
Korean Collection for Type Cultures (KCTC)

※ When you send the strains for deposit to KCTC by courier services (DHL, FedEx, UPS, etc.), please write HS code number (3002 90 4000) on the document.
* Using EMS
Address : (22381) 40-32, Gonghangdong-ro 193beon-gil, Jung-gu, Incheon, Republic of Korea
International Post Office
Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency
Korean Collection for Type Cultures (KCTC)

※ When you send the strains for deposit to KCTC by EMS, please print out the file of the plant quarantine object and attach it to the side of the package cover.
** If you send the strains through courier services, the process of custom clearance and quarantine will be faster to handle.
Relevant links
Microorganisms to be deposited by Patent Deposit.

According to the Patent Act, microorganisms include all types of biological materials that may be deposited by patent procedures, such as genes, vectors, recombinant vectors, RNA, transformants, fused cells, viruses, bacteria, yeasts, fungi, mushrooms, actinomyces, microalgae, animal and plant cells, and tissue cultures (Biotechnology Patent Review Criteria, March, 1998). The types of microorganisms that can be currently deposited to the KCTC are as follows bacteria : non-pathogenic molds fungi : non-pathogenic yeasts : non-pathogenic animal viruses plant viruses bacteriophages animal cell cultures plant cell cultures human cell cultures hybridomas eukaryotic DNA RNA plasmids in hosts embryos algae seeds