"Contributing to Invention Promotion" KT&G Receives Prime Minister's Commendation

KT&G received the Prime Minister's Commendation in recognition of its contribution to industrial development at the 56th Invention Day ceremony held on the 31st. The photo shows Oh Chi-beom, Head of KT&G R&D Division (left), attending the award ceremony and posing for a commemorative photo. Photo by Oh Chi-beom

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Hye-seon] KT&G announced on the 1st that it received the Prime Minister's Commendation in recognition of its contribution to national industrial development at the 56th Invention Day ceremony.

Hosted by the Korean Intellectual Property Office and organized by the Korea Invention Promotion Association, this event was held to reward individuals and organizations who have contributed to the promotion of invention in the Republic of Korea. The purpose is to spread a nationwide inventive atmosphere and promote the creation and utilization of excellent inventions, thereby contributing to national industrial development.

In this award, KT&G was recognized for its contribution to protecting national industrial technology and advancing the intellectual property system through independent technology development and policies encouraging employee inventions.

Since his appointment in 2015, KT&G President Baek Bok-in has emphasized the importance of convergence technology in the tobacco industry and focused on a technology development strategy centered on intellectual property. Accordingly, KT&G established an organization dedicated to intellectual property in 2016 and expanded the employee invention compensation system for researchers to encourage patent applications, strengthening policy support. Additionally, in 2018, KT&G built an independent computer system to effectively manage all of the company's intellectual property rights.

Thanks to these efforts, KT&G's patent applications increased from 43 in 2016 to 238 in 2018, 431 in 2019, and reached 1,203 last year, achieving a more than 28-fold increase in patent applications over four years.

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