More than 60,000 Patents Registered Overseas

LG Electronics has secured more than 60,000 patents overseas in an effort to preoccupy the future market.

The Korean consumer electronics giant has secured a number of patents for 5G mobile communication, artificial intelligence (AI), autonomous driving, and home appliances.

LG Electronics has shown its strong will to protect its intellectual property rights by responding strongly to foreign competitors’ copy of its technology.

As of March 31, 2020, LG Electronics registered 61,164 patents overseas, according to the company’s quarterly report submitted to the Financial Supervisory Service. Its overseas patents increased by 1,320 from the end of 2019 (59,844), and by nearly 5,000 compared to a year ago (56,268). Accordingly, the total number of the company’s patent registrations stood at 87,733.

LG Electronics has acquired 2,236 5th-generation mobile communication (5G) patents, ranking third in the world, said a recent report by the German intellectual property research firm IPlitics. It placed seventh in autonomous driving with 367 patents. The company came in sixth after Intel in terms of U.S. patents, according to U.S. patent information company IFI Claims.

In recent years, the company has acquired more than 1,000 patents on steam technology used in new home appliances such as stylers (steam closet system), dryers and dishwashers.

The company is responding strongly to technology thefts. Recently, it filed a patent infringement lawsuit against a European consumer electronics company which it said stole its steam technology.

As a result, LG Electronics spent a total of 1.93 trillion won in research and development expenses in the first quarter. It accounted for 7.4 percent of its sales, up nearly 1 percentage point from R&D expenditure (6.5 percent) in 2019.

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