Samsung Electronics Takes Lead in Patent Applications
The Korean Intellectual Property Office announced on Feb. 19 that the number of super-giant AI-related patent applications in the United States, Japan, China, Europe and South Korea increased approximately 28-fold from 2011 to 2020. Specifically, the number was 530 in 2011 and 14,848 in 2020.
The United States accounted for 35.6 percent of the total, followed by China (31 percent), Japan (11.6 percent) and South Korea (11.3 percent). When it comes to the average annual rate of increase, South Korea recorded 89.7 percent with its number being six in 2011 and 1,912 in 2020.
By applicant, the top five are Samsung Electronics (1,213, 2.9 percent), IBM (928, 2.2 percent), Google (824, 2 percent), Microsoft (731, 1.7 percent) and Baidu (572, 1.4 percent). As for the other South Korean applicants, LG came in tenth with 384 and StradVision, the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology came in 25th, 36th and 66th with 209, 157 and 80, respectively.
Enterprises accounted for 78.7 percent of the total applications. The ratio was as high as 91.2 percent and 95.4 percent in the United States and Japan, respectively.