Standard Patents
The Office of Patent Administration announced on March 23 that Korea passed Germany only to rank fifth in the world in terms of cumulative international standard patents for the first time. According to the Office of Patent Administration, last year, the three major standardization organizations approved 12,099 standard patents as of the end of December, up 8.9 percent from 11,107.
Korea saw its standard patents jump 62.2 percent to 782 last year from 482 in 2014. Korea’s increase rate towered over those of other countries. The three organizations are the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
In 2009, Korea had 185 patents, less than the half of those of Germany (400) and placed sixth slightly over the Netherlands (173). Over the past six years, Korea had narrowed its gap with Germany and last year, overtook Germany to claim fifth position. By nation, the US topped the list with 3101 patent or a share of 25.6 percent. Thanks to Nokia’s acquisition of Alcatel (France), Finland placed second with 2539 patents or 21 percent, outclassing Japan. Fourth-ranked France flinched as the figure dropped by 322 from a year before and its share stood at 10.4 percent.
Among companies and organizations, Nokia had the largest number of its patents (2466) certified. Among Korean companies and organizations, Samsung Electronics came in first with 360 patents in Korea and in third globally, followed by the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute that ranked 10th in the world. LG Electronics landed at the 42nd site with 59 patents. Mid-sized company Human recorded 26 patents, taking 66th place.
By technological sector, the coding and multimedia telecommunication sectors had 3,322 and 2,984 patents approved as international standard patents, respectively. Korea held first place in the superconductor bonding, scanning probe microscope communication security sectors. Specifically, it was found that all of 24 standard patents in the superconductor bonding, scanning probe microscope belonged to Korea.
Korea’s status will rise if Korea’s patents registered in the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and the International Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) are added to those registered in the world’s three major standardization organizations. The ETSI and the IEEE are in charge of setting electric, electronic and telecommunication standards in Europe and North America,
Adding Korea’s 8829 patents in the ETSI and 95 patents in the IEEE, Korea will have a total of 9,706 patents, ranking second after the US (21,804) in the world. In addition, LG Electronics will claim third place with 6,021 patents after Nokia (6482) and Qualcomm (6301). Samsung Electronics will come in seventh with 2,929 patents.