Prior to the enactment of the National Research And Development Innovation Act, there were no definitions of key terms related to national R&D, which made it difficult for the public, including researchers, to clearly understand national R&D. With its enactment, however, unified definitions of national R&D projects, R&D tasks, and R&D institutions have been established, paving the way for fundamental improvements in the government’s R&D system.

One of the definitions in the National R&D Innovation Act is that of “technology fees”, which are the amounts paid by a licensee to an R&D organization in exchange for the right to implement R&D results. However, if a for-profit corporation collects this fee from a licensee, it must pay a portion of the fee to the government. In addition, there is a so-called “self-implemented technology fee” system under which the government collects a portion of the profits when a for-profit corporation generates profits through the commercialization of the product of a government R&D project.

This study analyzes the concepts of three types of technology fees, namely general technology fees, so-called “government-paid technology fees”, and “self-implemented technology fees”, along with their regulatory history. It also notes that the regulations of each ministry or local government do not properly reflect the three types of technology fees, shows that these bodies continue to enforce under incorrect regulations, and emphasizes the need for improvement.