[2020 National Audit] 39% of C-grade Patents from Public Research Institutes "Would Anyone License This Technology?"

A Comprehensive Survey of Domestic Patents in Research Institutes Reveals 39% Are Grade C, Making Guarantees Difficult
Direct Cause of Sluggish Technology Transfer in Research Institutes

[Asia Economy Reporter Junho Hwang] A comprehensive survey of domestic patents from 19 government-funded research institutes in the field of science and technology, followed by rating assessments from the Korea Technology Finance Corporation, revealed that 38.8% of the patents were rated C to CCC, indicating a significant decline in patent quality. Patents rated C fall below the fund's guarantee payment criteria, which has been pointed out as a reason for the poor technology transfer performance of these research institutes.

C to CCC Ratings Account for 38.8%

On the 20th, Hong Jeong-min, a member of the National Assembly’s Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting and Communications Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea (Goyang-si Byeong), stated through the Ministry of Science and ICT’s audit of government-funded research institutes, "Government-funded research institutes should focus on qualitative achievements rather than short-term results."

Representative Hong conducted a full survey of 22,779 domestic patents registered by these institutes from 2014 to the present and directly input the data into the fund’s KPAS patent evaluation system to determine the ratings.

Among all patents from the research institutes, 38.8% (8,847 patents) received ratings of CCC, CC, or C. These are the lowest ratings among the nine total grades. The fund considers patents with these ratings unsuitable for guarantees. The proportion of lowest-rated patents registered in this system is about 23%, so this is significantly higher. Patents rated B to BBB accounted for 11,877 (52%), which is below the average of 54%. Only 9% (2,055 patents) received the highest ratings of A to AAA, compared to the system average of 23%.

Patent Ratings Have Declined Annually Since 2014

By year, the number of patents from government-funded research institutes receiving the lowest ratings has increased, indicating a decline in patent quality each year. The share of patents rated C to CCC surged from 16.9% (632 patents) in 2014 to 53.9% (1,021 patents). The share of B to BBB rated patents decreased from 68.1% (2,542 patents) to 39.5% (749 patents). The proportion of A to AAA rated patents also shrank from 14.9% (558 patents) to 6.4% (123 patents).

By institution, the research institutes with the most A to AAA rated patents were Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Korea Basic Science Institute, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science, and Korea Food Research Institute. The highest proportions of patents rated B or above were found at Korea Railroad Research Institute, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Korea Aerospace Research Institute, Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute, and Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials. Meanwhile, Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, Korea Food Research Institute, and Korea Institute of Science and Technology had many patents rated C to CCC.

Reasons for Poor Technology Transfer Performance

Hong Jeong-min, Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker

Representative Hong stated, "This research shows the causes behind the poor performance in technology transfer." The technology transfer rate of patents from government-funded research institutes under the Ministry of Science and ICT was 27.7% in 2019, a decrease of more than half compared to 49.4% in 2015.

He pointed out, "This is the result of a flawed performance indicator that evaluated the research operation fund support projects of government-funded research institutes based on the number of registered patents (until 2017). Also, since 2018, these projects have been classified as non-subject to performance management, so performance plans are no longer prepared, which is another cause of the decline in patent ratings."

He added, "This analysis aimed to prove that the lack of qualitative analysis and evaluation of patents from government-funded research institutes limits improvements in the projects. To improve the quality of patents, performance management should be revised to include qualitative performance indicators rather than being excluded from performance management."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.