Thanks to the success of K-pop artists like BTS and Blackpink, as well as the booming export of K-dramas and other Korean content, the first half of this year witnessed a record-breaking trade surplus in copyright exports, marking an all-time high.
According to the “2023 First-Half Intellectual Property Trade Balance Preliminary Report” released by the Bank of Korea on Sept. 22, the trade surplus in intellectual property rights for the first half reached a surplus of US$330 million (441.05 billion won). This marks the second-largest surplus on a semi-annual basis, following the surplus of US$350 million (467.78 billion won) recorded in the second half of 2019.
The trade balance in intellectual property rights includes statistics encompassing all types of transactions and usage involving intellectual property rights, including industrial property rights, such as patents and utility model rights, franchises, as well as copyrights covering music and video.
The strong performance of the intellectual property rights trade balance in the first half of the year is attributed to the record-high surplus of US$1.52 billion (2.03 trillion won) in copyrights. Both research and development as well as software copyrights contributed US$1.18 billion (1.58 trillion won), while cultural and artistic copyrights accounted for US$340 million (454.41 billion won) in surplus.
The surplus in research and development as well as software copyrights saw an expanded surplus, primarily driven by the thriving export of databases. Databases increased their surplus from US$1.31 billion (1.75 trillion won) in the first half of last year to US$1.51 billion (2.02 trillion won) in the first half of this year.
The majority of the surplus in cultural and artistic copyrights came from the music and video copyright account, totaling US$280 million (374.22 billion won). Cultural and artistic copyrights have consistently recorded surpluses for seven consecutive half-years since the first half of 2020, thanks to the thriving export of Hallyu content.
On the other hand, industrial intellectual property rights showed a deficit of US$1.08 billion (1.44 trillion won). This deficit widened significantly compared to the same period last year, which had a deficit of US$370 million (494.51 billion won). The deficit was driven by both patents and utility model rights with a deficit of US$570 million (761.81 billion won), as well as trademark and franchise rights with a deficit of US$520 million (694.98 billion won).
By industry, the manufacturing sector recorded a surplus of US$1.07 billion (1.43 trillion won), while the services sector showed a deficit of US$820 million (1.1 trillion won). In the manufacturing sector, automotive and trailer products registered a surplus of US$860 million (1.15 trillion won), while electrical and electronic products showed a surplus of US$710 million (948.92 billion won). On the other hand, in the service sector, wholesale and retail trade posted a deficit of US$400 million (534.6 billion won)
When looking at trade partners by country, South Korea recorded a surplus with countries like China totaling US$1.35 billion (1.8 trillion won), and Vietnam amounting to US$770 million (1.03 trillion won). Conversely, deficits were recorded with countries such as the United Kingdom with a deficit of US$1.73 billion (2.31 trillion won), the United States with a deficit of US$1.11 billion (1.48 trillion won), and Japan with a deficit of US$110 million (147.02 billion won).