Stingy with Patents
The Korean government’s plan to encourage large corporations to share their patent technology with smaller firms via regional Centers for Creative Economy & Innovation is getting off to a poor start. Although large companies have made public more than 100,000 or so patents with the 17 centers across the country, the patents are divided in different regions, and there is no organization for a comprehensive management of the data. On the contrary, the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy’s Technology Sharing Project, which was kicked off last year, is working out well. Samsung Electronics disclosed 2,987 techniques on Sept. 6, and Hyundai Motor Company is planning to join it in the latter half of this year.
At present, most of the 105,000 patents announced to have been made public since the establishment of the Centers for Creative Economy & Innovation are not free of charge. Besides, with the 17 centers being run individually by respective companies in charge, free and paid data are mixed in some of them, such as the SK Group’s, or some patents are available only on the official websites of the centers and the companies, while not shown in the Korea Intellectual Property Office’s IP-Market for intellectual property transactions. Some of those of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering and Hyundai Heavy Industries are not posted even on the homepages of their centers.
However, the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy’s Technology Sharing Project has attracted SK Hynix, LS Industrial Systems, LG Display, Samsung Electronics, and many more as its members. In addition, a number of companies are looking forward to participating in the program.