KIPI (Korea Institute of Patent Information) is a non-profit organization established in July 1995 in accordance with the Civil Act. Its major duties are to support the administrative affairs of KIPO. For the duties, it launched an online patent information search service (KIPRIS) on July 1996, and was awarded contracts to conduct prior art search, IPC (International Patent Classification) assignment, and trademark search by KIPO on August 1996, January 2001, and February 2003 respectively. In addition to supporting KIPO, KIPI has been providing a patent information service (FORX) for the private sector companies.