Korea Ranks No.1 Worldwide in Domestic Patent Applications Relative to GDP

South Korea has been found to have the highest number of domestic patent applications relative to its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the world.

Provided by Korea Intellectual Property Research Institute

According to the Korea Intellectual Property Research Institute on the 22nd, South Korea ranked first globally with 7,828 domestic patent applications per 100 billion USD of GDP in the ‘2023 World Intellectual Property Indicators’ report recently released by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Following South Korea, China ranked second with 5,702 applications, and Japan took third place with 4,200 applications.

The report compiles and publishes the number of patent applications by country each year. South Korea has maintained the top position worldwide for five consecutive years since 2018 in domestic patent applications per 100 billion USD of GDP, reaffirming the high level of public interest in patents.

Last year, the total number of patent applications filed worldwide was 3,457,400. Among these, patent applications received by the five major patent offices (IP5) ? South Korea, the United States, China, Japan, and the European Union ? accounted for 84.9% of the total. The Korean Intellectual Property Office received a total of 237,633 patent applications, ranking fourth globally after the patent offices of China, the United States, and Japan in terms of the number of applications filed.

Gwak Semi, a researcher at the Korea Intellectual Property Research Institute, said, “South Korea has firmly maintained its position as the world’s number one in patent and industrial design applications relative to GDP, establishing itself as a global innovation leader. However, considering the current situation where global economic uncertainties could pose serious burdens on the global intellectual property ecosystem, the government needs to continuously develop and implement efficient intellectual property support policies.”

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