The largest patent holder in Korea is Samsung Electronics, while the largest trademark holder is Amorepacific Corporation.
The Korean Intellectual Property Office released the results of its investigation into domestic patent and trademark multiple registrants on the 8th, coinciding with the 60th anniversary of Inventor's Day.
The first patent granted to a Korean was for a hat made of horsehair, registered in 1909 by independence activist Jeong In-ho, who used the sales proceeds from this patent to support the independence movement. After liberation, the 'Method of Manufacturing Oil Paints (1948)' from the Central Industrial Research Institute (now the National Institute of Standards and Technology) was registered as the first patent in 1948.
A total of 2,705,171 patents have been registered so far, and it is projected that the number of registered patents will exceed 3 million by 2027.
Samsung Electronics leads in patent registrations, holding 134,802 patents, which account for 5.0% of all patents. Samsung Electronics, which ventured into the electronics business in 1969, is recognized as one of the leading innovation companies worldwide in advanced technology fields such as semiconductors and mobile devices. Last year alone, it recorded 5,255 registered patents. In second place is LG Electronics with 77,802 patents, followed by Hyundai Motor with 54,305 and SK hynix with 39,071.
The first trademark registration was for the trademark '天' of Cheonil Industry, registered in 1949. By the end of last year, a total of 2,741,047 trademarks had been registered.
The top company for multiple trademark registrations is Amorepacific Corporation, which began as Pacific Chemical Industry in 1945, having registered a total of 16,514 trademarks. The third is also Amorepacific Corporation, with 9,357 registered trademarks, while the second is LG Household & Health Care, a cosmetics specialist, with 15,969 registered trademarks.
Kim Wan-ki, head of the Korean Intellectual Property Office, noted, 'I expect this announcement will serve as an opportunity to shed light on the process that has enabled our country’s industrial development and economic growth, beyond merely recording statistics,' and added, 'We will support our corporations in overcoming crises and leading technological innovation based on intellectual property, even amid an unstable domestic and international environment this year.'