Korea Regains 4th Place in International Patent Applications After 11 Years

20,060 International Patent Applications Last Year... Top Applicants: Samsung 2nd, LG 4th

Comparison of Overseas 'Direct Application' and 'PCT Application' Procedures. Provided by the Korean Intellectual Property Office

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] South Korea ranked 4th in the world last year in the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) international patent application (Patent Cooperation Treaty·PCT) rankings. This is the first time in 11 years since it dropped to 5th place in 2010.

According to the Korean Intellectual Property Office on the 5th, last year Korea filed the fourth highest number of international patents in the world, following China, the United States, and Japan. An international patent application grants the effect of filing in multiple designated countries with a single application submitted to WIPO.

South Korea maintained 4th place in international patent applications from 2007 to 2009 but dropped one rank to 5th place from 2010 to 2019.

However, last year, the number of international patent applications exceeded 20,000 for the first time ever, regaining its previous rank. The number of international patent applications filed domestically last year (20,060) doubled in nine years since surpassing 10,000 for the first time in 2011.

In particular, last year recorded a 5.2% increase compared to the previous year, showing the third highest growth rate among the top 10 countries in international patent applications.

The Korean Intellectual Property Office interprets that the surge in international patent applications last year was mainly due to the rapid increase in digital transformation and untact (contactless) fields influenced by COVID-19. In fact, the proportion of international patents related to digital and untact technologies increased from 23.4% in 2019 to 27.3% last year.

The increase in international patent applications by domestic companies is also noteworthy. Among the top 10 companies in international patent applications, Korean companies Samsung and LG Electronics made the list. Samsung ranked 2nd among companies with the most applications last year, filing 3,093 international patents. LG Electronics ranked 4th with 2,759 applications. Alongside these companies, the top 5 included China’s Huawei (1st), Japan’s Mitsubishi (3rd), and the United States’ Qualcomm (5th).

Most notably, LG Electronics showed the highest increase rate in applications among the world’s top 10 companies, with a 67.6% increase in international patent applications compared to the previous year. Samsung Electronics also improved its ranking for three consecutive years, moving from 6th in 2018, 3rd in 2019, to 2nd in 2020.

In the status of international patent applicants, three domestic universities?Seoul National University (12th), Hanyang University (17th), and Korea University (19th)?were included in the top 20 universities list.

Jeong Dae-soon, head of the Multilateral Organizations Team at the Korean Intellectual Property Office, said, “It is encouraging that domestic companies increased their international patent applications last year despite the economic downturn caused by COVID-19,” adding, “This demonstrates that companies actively sought to secure international patents as a means to strengthen their global competitiveness amid the crisis.”

He emphasized, “The Korean Intellectual Property Office plans to continue implementing various support policies so that domestic companies can register and protect their core technologies as intellectual property rights (such as patents) locally overseas.”

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