For the fourth straight year last year, the country ranked fourth in the number of international patent cooperation treaty applications filed by domestic companies with the World Intellectual Property Organization. Shown is the headquarters of Samsung Electronics in Seoul's Seocho-gu District. (Yonhap News)

By Hong Angie

For the fourth straight year, the country last year ranked fourth in the number of applications for international Patent Cooperation Treaties (PCT) filed by domestic companies with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) on March 24 said the nation's companies led by Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics filed 22,288 PCT applications last year, up 1.2% from 2022.

PCT is a global system in which one patent application with WIPO has the same effect as applying in multiple countries.

Based on WIPO statistics, the number of PCT applications filed by Korean companies has increased for some 30 years since 1990.

By country, China had the most applications with 69,610, followed by the U.S. with 55,678 and Japan 48,879.

Except Korea, the other four countries in the top five for applications -- China, Japan, the U.S. and Germany -- showed decreases.

Three Korean companies were among the top 20 applicants for PCTs: Samsung Electronics (second), LG Electronics (sixth) and LG Energy Solution (17th).

"This is proof of Korean corporate efforts to globally protect their intellectual property, which are products of innovation," said Jeong In-sik, director general of KIPO's Intellectual Property Protection and International Cooperation Bureau. "We will do more to set up a more favorable environment for domestic companies to secure intellectual property rights overseas."

shong9412@korea.kr