‘Korea Resilient in Crisis’ - Patent Decline in Major Countries, Increase in Korea

Status of applications and growth rates by IP5 national patent offices and by nationality. Provided by the Patent Office

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Amid the clear decline in patent applications in major countries worldwide last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, South Korea's patent applications have rather increased.

According to the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) on the 25th, the recently jointly announced "IP5 Key Statistical Indicators 2020" by the IP5 (Intellectual Property five offices, a consultative body among the patent offices of Korea, the United States, Europe, Japan, and China) showed that the total number of patents filed in IP5 countries last year was approximately 2.79 million, an increase of 2.2% compared to the previous year.

However, unlike the overall increase in patent applications, there were significant differences in application status by country.

For example, Korea filed a total of 226,759 patent applications last year, an increase of 3.6% compared to the previous year. In contrast, the United States decreased by 3.9%, Europe by 0.6%, and Japan by 6.3% compared to the previous year.

In the case of China, the number of patent applications increased by 6.9% compared to the previous year, but KIPO explained that this is interpreted as a base effect due to a sharp decrease in applications in 2018 followed by an increase.

Above all, KIPO also places significance on the fact that the increase in domestic patent applications last year reflects the crisis response strategy of Korean companies to enhance competitiveness in the digital economy era through technological preemption despite the COVID-19 situation.

The efforts of Korean companies to secure global patent competitiveness last year are even more prominent when looking at patent application indicators by nationality. By nationality, the number of applications filed by Koreans to the IP5 totaled 251,142, an increase of 4.8% compared to the previous year, and Korean patent applications showed a steady increase across all IP5 countries including the United States, Europe, China, and Japan.

Based on this, KIPO emphasized that it can glimpse the active movements of Korean companies to secure patent competitiveness worldwide.

Park Jin-hwan, Director of the Information Customer Policy Division at KIPO, said, "Domestic patent applications in the first quarter of this year increased by 6.7% compared to the first quarter of last year, and the increase in patent applications is expected to continue this year following last year." He added, "This is evidence that despite the impact of COVID-19, Korean companies continue their efforts to preempt patent rights through aggressive investment, and KIPO will also support our companies to establish global patent competitiveness."

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