Led by Samsung
Over the past three years, patent applications in the Korean medical device sector have increased 30%.
According to "Medical Device-Patent Classification Connection Table" released by the Korean Intellectual Property Office on May 7, 9,163 medical devices were patented last year. In 2013, 6,997 applications for medical devices were filed, but they grew 30% in the three years. They accounted for 4.2 percent of 216,957 patents filed last year. In terms of applicants, Samsung Electronics filed the largest number of patents with 1,964 patents in the past ten years. Among foreign companies, Kimberly-Clark of the United States, the world's largest sanitary paper maker, filed 510 applications.
The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) decided to create a “medical device-patent classification connection table” so that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the sector of medical devices can discover promising future industrial items. This table divides medical devices into 14 categories and 80 sub-categories. The table matches each category with the International Patent Classification (IPC) on a one-to-one basis and analyzes and provides patent applications and registration trends in each field over the last 10 years. Therefore, the table enables people to understand technology development trends in the sector at a glance.
By technology sector, applications in biometrics, including various types of measurement devices such as electrocardiogram, electroencephalogram and electromyography measurement devices showed the biggest jump. Among the sub-categories, biometrics including body composition measuring instruments and wearable measuring instruments recorded the highest growth rate in the short- to long-term thanks to a run-up in applications filed by colleges and public research institutes.