'Car Camping Boom' Drives 18% Annual Increase in Car Camping Tent Patent Applications

Graph of patent application trends for car camping tents. Provided by the Korean Intellectual Property Office.

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Patent applications related to car camping tents have been steadily increasing recently. This is attributed to the growing number of people enjoying car camping.

According to the Korean Intellectual Property Office on the 30th, a total of 40 patents related to "car camping tents" were filed last year. This represents a 167% increase compared to 15 cases in 2019, showing an average annual growth rate of 18% over the past decade.

In particular, patent applications for car camping tents are significant as they act as a driving force to increase the number of patent applications in the tent sector, which had been declining since peaking in 2013.

Recent patent applications prominently feature 'methods of connecting to trunks or doors' for car camping tents. Provided by the Korean Intellectual Property Office.

Car camping tents mainly include rooftop tents installed on vehicle roofs, tents connected to vehicle trunks or doors, and tents installed inside vehicles.

Among these, patent applications for tents connected to vehicle trunks or doors surged from 6 cases in 2019 to 29 cases in 2020. In contrast, applications for rooftop tents, which had been popular, only increased from 8 to 11 cases.

The Korean Intellectual Property Office analyzes this trend as reflecting recent consumer preferences emphasizing convenience and practicality, with technologies that allow tents to be easily connected and installed on vehicles and enhance the usability of camping equipment linked to vehicles being primarily filed.

Tent technology is also evolving by combining with IT technology to prevent safety accidents and enhance the camping experience. Representative examples include carbon monoxide detection and control technologies linked to smartphones, and technologies that express natural sounds inside tents through light or music.

Domestic automobile companies have attracted public attention by unveiling electric vehicles suitable for car camping. Based on this, the Korean Intellectual Property Office expects that "car camping tents" will gradually develop to be used in conjunction with electric vehicles.

The development of tent technology is led by domestic applicants. In particular, individual applicants account for as much as 64.8% of the total. This is thanks to ideas conceived while enjoying camping being continuously connected to patent applications.

Seo Jang-won, an examiner at the Residential Infrastructure Examination Division of the Korean Intellectual Property Office, said, "Due to the convenience provided by car camping and the allowance of passenger car modifications, patent applications related to car camping, including car camping tents, are expected to continue increasing."

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