K-Content Advances Repeatedly... 11 Consecutive Years of Copyright Trade Surplus

Copyright Surplus, Industrial Property Deficit Covered and More
Cultural and Artistic Copyrights Increased by Seven Compared to 2020

South Korea has achieved a copyright trade surplus for 11 consecutive years. According to the '2023 Intellectual Property Trade Balance' announced by the Bank of Korea on the 21st, a surplus of 2.21 billion dollars (approximately 2.9 trillion won) was recorded. Thanks to the continuous export of K-content, it increased by about 27% compared to the previous year. The surplus trend that began in 2013 was smoothly maintained.

The Bank of Korea annually compiles the status of international transactions related to intellectual property rights within the current account items. The fields are broadly divided into copyrights (music, video, games, software, etc.) and industrial property rights (patents, trademarks, etc.).

Last year, the overall intellectual property trade balance showed a surplus of 180 million dollars (approximately 240.7 billion won). Although there was a deficit of 1.86 billion dollars in industrial property rights, the strong performance in copyrights more than compensated for it. A Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism official emphasized, "It is necessary to pay attention to the fact that South Korea led the overall intellectual property trade surplus."

The copyright trade balance is largely divided into research and development/software copyrights (games, software, etc.) and cultural and artistic copyrights (music, video, webtoons, etc.). The former has maintained a stable surplus for several years, recording 1.1 billion dollars last year as well. The latter has recently seen a significant increase in surplus. Last year's record was 1.1 billion dollars (approximately 1.5 trillion won), which is seven times higher than the first surplus achieved in 2020 (170 million dollars).

Jung Hyang-mi, Director of the Copyright Bureau at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said, "This is an encouraging achievement amid the global economic downturn," and added, "We will carefully develop copyright laws, systems, and related protection policies to ensure that K-content expanding overseas is sufficiently protected and circulates in a virtuous cycle."

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