Today, the Korean Intellectual Property Office ( KIPO) has officially announced Samsung and LG as among the top five largest patent cooperation treaty (PCT) filers worldwide.
The PCT is a global filing service for invention protection that allows applicants to seek international protection for their intellectual property in over 150 countries with a single filing.
With this PCT, patent filers no longer have to seek protection in each nation individually, in line with the method created by the World Intellectual Property Organization, a United Nations organization.
According to KIPO, with 3,041 PCT applications in 2021, Samsung, which specialized in semiconductor chips, smartphones, and home appliances, was ranked third, down a notch from the previous year. On the other hand, LG Electronics, a manufacturer of televisions and home appliances, was rated fourth with 2,885 applications.
They were followed by Huawei Technologies of China, which led the list for the fifth year in a row, and Qualcomm of the United States, whose yearly PCT applications increased by 80%. Samsung’s PCT filings for 2021 are down 1.7 percent from a year ago, while LG Electronics’ are up 4.6 percent.
The Korean companies Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, as well as battery materials manufacturer LG Chem and battery producer LG Energy Solution, were among the top 50 PCT applicants worldwide. LG Energy Solutions filed 548 PCT applications in 2020, up from zero in the previous year.
Six educational institutions in Korea were ranked in the top 50 in the PCT rankings. The institutions under question were Korea University, Yonsei University, Hanyang University, Seoul National University, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, and Catholic University.
In all, Korea was placed fourth in the world, behind China, the United States, and Japan, with a total of 20,678 PCT applications filed. Korea has held the top spot for the past two years. Korea ranked fifth in the world from 2010 to 2019.
Korea’s PCT applications increased by 3.2 percent year over year, the most among the top five countries. This also outperformed the global PCT filings growth rate of 0.9 percent.
The growing number of PCT applications indicates that a company is actively innovating. According to KIPO, one of the factors used by the Bloomberg Innovation Index and WIPO’s Global Innovation Index to determine the level of innovation is the number of patent applications filed through the PCT system.
Speaking about government commitment to safeguarding intellectual property rights KIPO spokesman said: The organization is “striving to secure intellectual property rights for outcomes by innovative Korean firms in the world.”
