Posts in Korea

Innovation in the automotive sector was a huge story, both for the types of technologies being developed and the companies pursuing the R&D in that field. Drones and robotics also played a role in other top patent applications which we’re profiling today. Rounding out our list of top 2015 innovations includes an emotion analysis system for financial security, wireless charging schemes, low-power communications for wearable devices and a greenhouse window that can generate electricity while improving crop yield.

This South Korean consumer tech company is often found among the assignees for patents issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. In 2014, the USPTO issued 2,119 U.S. patent to LG, placing it 11th among all companies worldwide. This is in spite of a much reduced rate of innovation, almost one-third less than the patents the company earned in 2013. With 662 U.S. patents issued to LG in the three months leading up to this writing, it looks like the electronics developer may experience an increase in the total number of patents it earns this year. Our recent analysis of patented innovations at LG show a great deal of innovation in wireless communications as well as base stations.

Samsung’s smart television technologies, which utilize an IP address to provide additional content to complement typical broadcast television, will get a boost from the innovation described within U.S. Patent No. 9124931, entitled Managing a TV Application for Over-The-Top TV. It discloses a method of displaying content on a television by dynamically determining whether an input source for a TV is set to a virtual input source, validating viewer account credentials, executing a TV application that enables over-the-top (OTT) TV video content delivery using an Internet connection, dynamically displaying content from a last-selected channel or service, enabling normal TV operations including changing channels and automatically the TV application enabling OTT TV video content delivery for the last-selected service when the TV is turned on. This invention enables an Internet television owner to quickly return to the OTT service application, like Netflix or Hulu, which an owner was last watching without having to wait for the app to load.

In 2013, 647,300 industrial design registrations were filed – a 6.4% drop from 2012. The decline in global registrations stems primarily from the slow-down of Chinese manufacturing, which produced 12% fewer registrations than the previous year. After seven years of consecutive growth, 2013’s global registrations of 919,100 designs represents a 3.3% decrease from 2012. In 2013, upwards of three million industrial design registrations were in force.

When you think about the american auto industry it’s becoming clearer every day that the idea of American-made or Japanese-made is not black and white. Increasingly, the innovative technologies going into the vehicles being sold in our country are also coming from overseas. It’s pretty telling that industry data indicates that there are no truly American-made cars being sold anymore. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s 2015 American Automobile Labeling Act (AALA) report shows that the cars constructed with the most American parts still had foreign parts used in at least one-quarter of the vehicle’s construction. Most of the cars that were three-quarters composed of American parts were made by General Motors Company, including the Buick Enclave, the Cadillac CTS and the Chevrolet Corvette.

Both Korea and China are major players on the global patent stage, and the leading companies of these countries file and obtain thousands of patents annually. But it seems increasingly clear that the governments of these countries are attempting to support their domestic companies via antitrust enforcement to lower the price of access to patented technologies of foreign competitors.

In 2014, Samsung Electronics was second overall among companies receiving U.S. patents with approximately 13.5 patents every day over the course of a year. While much of Samsung’s recently acquired portfolio relates to semiconductor and memory devices, they are also a big player in wearable technologies. In fact, Samsung is the top filer of patent applications related to wearable technologies, accounting for about four percent of the 41,301 patents making up the wearables field according to a study by Lux Research of Boston, MA.

Wireless charging systems are also being designed for use inside the car so that passengers find it easier to keep their smartphones charged over the course of a long road trip. In 2013, the Toyota Avalon was the first vehicle to offer an in-car wireless charging system for mobile devices. Similar options are also available for new Toyota Priuses, Jeep Cherokees and Dodge Darts. The majority of these in-car wireless charging systems utilize the Qi standard developed by the WPC.

Global innovation continued to climb during 2014 but at the slowest pace seen since the global economic recession hit in 2009. The Reuters report didn’t draw any specific conclusions as to why the innovation slowdown had occurred but did draw a correlation between published scientific literature and patenting activities, noting that the former typically precedes the latter by three to five years. As graphs published in the Reuters study clearly show, scientific literature publications in 12 industries increased between 2008 and 2009 at a slower rate than prior years, mirroring the patenting slowdown experienced this year. Troublingly, a steep drop in published scientific literature was experienced in 2010, so if this model holds we may see a reduction in global patenting activity when the annual Reuters innovation study comes out next year.

Japan is not the only economic sector in Asia that has been eking out a strong niche in the global automotive sector. The 2015 Global Automotive Executive Survey released by global auditing firm KPMG reports that the Hyundai/Kia group of South Korea is the auto manufacturing business whose market share was most expected to increase by auto executives. As of 2015, the report shows that Hyundai/Kia holds the fifth-overall ranking for mass market vehicle production. The story of South Korean car makers entering the U.S. market and Korean automobiles on American roadways follows a familiar script. Consumer perceptions give way to a recognition of quality improvements and lower price tags.

The definition of indigenous innovation is “enhancing original innovation through co-innovation and re-innovation based on the assimilation of imported technologies.” Those familiar with China’s joint venture rules for foreign businesses, which require them to transfer some patent licensing powers to Chinese companies in order to enter their market, are wary of statements like this that essentially support a siphoning of foreign intellectual property.