A program, the first of its kind, will be introduced in Cambodia allowing patents registered in South Korea to have the same effect in the Southeast Asian nation.

Park Won-joo, commissioner of the Korean Intellectual Property Office, signed a memorandum of understanding(MOU) on this patent agreement with Cambodian Minister of Industry and Handicraft Cham Prasidh in Phnom Penh on Friday.

Under the program which is to take effect from November, patents registered in Korea can obtain the same validity in Cambodia within three months following a simple process of submitting a request for patent recognition and related documentation.

Around 30 South Korean patent applications were filed in Cambodia between 2010 and 2018 but due to limited resources, patent deliberations have been delayed and not a single case has been registered.

Once the new program is implemented, Korean firms planning to enter the Cambodian market will be able to swiftly acquire patent rights and thereby gain better understanding in predicting local business conditions.

The Korean Intellectual Property Office also on Thursday signed an MOU with Cambodia's vice commerce minister on cooperation in various fields covering intellectual property rights, trademarks and digitization.

The MOU is expected to ensure stronger protection of Korean brands in Cambodia and help Korean businesses make stable inroads into the local market.