KIPO: "Korea Maintains 4th Place Worldwide in PCT for 5 Consecutive Years"

South Korea maintained its position as the world's 4th largest filer in the international patent application (PCT) category for the fifth consecutive year. Notably, last year, South Korea showed the most remarkable growth among the top 5 PCT countries. The PCT system allows a single patent application to have the effect of filing patents in multiple countries.

According to the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) on the 31st, South Korea filed 23,851 PCT applications last year, a 7.1% increase from 22,277 applications in 2023.

South Korea's global PCT ranking was 5th from 2010 to 2019, then rose one spot to 4th in 2020 after surpassing Germany, maintaining the 4th place for five consecutive years including last year.

In particular, South Korea's PCT growth rate of 7.1% last year was significantly higher compared to the five major patent powers: the United States (-2.8%), China (0.9%), Japan (-1.2%), and Germany (-1.3%).

Among domestic companies, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics stood out in the PCT category. As of last year, Samsung Electronics ranked 2nd globally with 4,640 applications, and LG Electronics ranked 4th with 2,083 applications in the top 5 global PCT companies. Other companies in the top 5 included Chinese firms Huawei (1st) and CATL (5th), as well as American company Qualcomm (3rd).

The advances of Samsung and LG in the PCT sector are noteworthy. Samsung Electronics recorded the highest growth rate among the top 10 global PCT companies last year, with an 18.2% increase compared to the previous year. LG Electronics also improved its ranking by two spots, moving from 6th to 4th place last year.

Separately, KIPO identified that four universities were among the top 20 PCT applicants last year: Seoul National University (5th), Hanyang University (15th), Korea University (18th), and Yonsei University (20th).

Shin Sang-gon, Director of the Industrial Property Protection Cooperation Bureau at KIPO, stated, “The PCT system is a mechanism to protect intellectual property such as ideas and innovations in overseas markets. The increase in South Korea’s PCT filings indicates that domestic companies are paying close attention to and investing effort in protecting their intellectual property.” He added, “KIPO will continue to support domestic companies in securing overseas intellectual property protection based on ‘premium patents’ to help them gain a competitive edge in the market.”

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