The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on Sept. 16 said Korea ranked fourth in WIPO's Global Innovation Index. Shown is the pavilion of Samsung Electronics in January at CES 2025, the world's biggest expo for consumer electronics and information and communications technology, in Las Vegas. (Samsung Electronics)

By Aisylu Akhmetzianova

Korea is one of the world's top four powers in global innovation.

The Korean Intellectual Property Office on Sept. 16 said the country ranked fourth among 139 countries in the overall rankings and No. 1 in Asia in this year's Global Innovation Index (GII) of the World Intellectual Property Organization.

The GII is based on a comprehensive evaluation of 78 subindicators in the five input categories of systems, human capital and research, infrastructure, market sophistication and corporate sophistication and the two output sectors of knowledge and technology output and creative output.

Korea finished fourth in inputs and sixth in outputs and topped the human capital and research indicator for the seventh straight year.

Among the 78 subindicators, the nation also led the world in three: patent applications as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), government online services relative to ICT infrastructure and corporate research capacity. It also ranked third in international patents and design applications as a percentage of GDP.

The top three on the list remained unchanged from last year: Switzerland, Sweden and the U.S. in that order. In Asia, Singapore ranked fifth, China 10th and Japan 12th.

aisylu@korea.kr