Seongnam City Registers European Patent for "Drone-Based Heat Transport Pipe Safety Inspection"

First Overseas Patent Registration for the City
Exploring Overseas Exports with Proprietary Drone-Based Heat Pipe Safety Inspection Technology

Seongnam-si in Gyeonggi Province (Mayor Shin Sangjin) announced that its self-developed "Drone-Based Heat Transport Pipe Safety Inspection System" has completed registration as a European patent (registration number EP4092315. This is the city’s first case of overseas patent registration and is expected to serve as an opportunity to open the way for exports to Europe by securing overseas rights to its intellectual property.

Footage detecting abnormal signs during an inspection of heat supply pipelines using a drone (Yatap-dong area, Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si). Provided by Seongnam City.

The core of this technology is an inspection system that uses a thermal imaging camera mounted on a drone to detect geothermal heat around underground heat pipes and analyze it to identify, at an early stage, sections that are damaged or showing abnormal signs. Because it enables non-contact, non-destructive inspections that improve both efficiency and safety, it has strong potential for use in safety management across various types of urban infrastructure, including heat transport pipes.

This technology was reported in April 2019 as an employee invention by a public official, and in November of the same year Seongnam-si decided to succeed to the rights. It was subsequently registered as a domestic patent (No. 10-2415774) in June 2022.

Afterward, in December 2020, Seongnam-si established a policy to file an international patent application under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) and submitted the application. The city strategically pursued the acquisition of rights by designating Europe, where the share of district heating use is high and demand for heat transport pipes is strong, as a key target region for overseas patents. Europe is a market in which demand for technologies related to the maintenance and management of heat pipes continues to grow, backed by large-scale district heating infrastructure.

In line with this strategy, the technology was registered as a European patent on December 17, 2025, following examination procedures, and starting this year the city is proceeding with procedures for entering individual countries, including Germany, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, and Iceland. Through this, the city plans to gradually expand the scope of its rights in Europe and pursue overseas commercialization in various forms, such as technology transfer and licensing.

A Seongnam-si official said, "The registration of this European patent is highly significant as it is the first case in which an employee invention from the public sector has had its technological competitiveness recognized overseas," adding, "We will continue to actively identify outstanding employee inventions and systematically support the acquisition of overseas rights, thereby strengthening our patent export competitiveness based on proprietary technologies and enhancing the status of Seongnam as a knowledge-based industrial city."

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