South Korea’s intellectual property agency chief has been chosen as one of the 50 most influential people from the intellectual property industry this year by UK magazine Managing IP.

Korean Intellectual Property Office Commissioner Lee Insil was named on the list released Tuesday, which also included US President Joe Biden and World Trade Organization Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

Lee was the only Korean IP expert to win the feat this year.

The IP chief has been recognized for her outstanding external cooperation activities to promote intellectual property policies to national agendas, according to Managing IP.

Lee has made efforts to bolster a strategic partnership among major economies and played a significant role in raising awareness of IP utilization and expansion in developing nations, the magazine explained.

Lee, who has over 30 years of experience and expertise in the field, was unanimously appointed to be an honorary member of the Federation Internationale des Conseils en Propriete Intellectuelle last October.

Lee took office as the KIPO head in May this year, becoming the first private-sector expert to lead the state agency in its 73 years of history. She was a patent attorney at law firm Kim & Chang before taking the helm.

By Jie Ye-eun and Lee Kwon-hyung

(yeeun@heraldcorp.com) (kwonhl@heraldcorp.com)