Executive Summary
According to the intellectual property statistics trends announced by the Korean Intellectual Property Office in November 2022, the cumulative number of applications for patents, utility models, designs, and trademarks from January to October 2022 was 443,728, a 6.5% decrease compared to the same period of the previous year. In the case of October 2022, it was also confirmed that the number of applications, which had been increasing in the first half of the year, is now decreasing again, with a decrease of 6.7% compared to the same month of the previous year. Based on the cumulative number of applications: (1) 181,224 patents were filed, a decrease of 0.9%; (2) 2,565 utility models, a 23.6% decrease; (3) 45,512 designs, a 13.3% decrease; (4) and 214,427 trademarks, a 9.1% decrease. 181,382 examination requests were recorded, a decrease of 13.4% compared to the same period of the previous year.
Meanwhile, it was confirmed that the number of intellectual property registrations was 27,699, a decrease of 2.8% compared to the same period of the previous year. Further, in trademarks, which had shown a temporary surge, 109,344 were registered, a decrease of 4.2% compared to the previous year, as was the case with patents (5.7% decrease), utility models (21.0% decrease), and designs (3.4% decrease).
Although the number of examination requests also decreased compared to the same period of the previous year, 5,310 requests, a decrease of 17.3% compared to the same period of the previous year during the period by October, were recorded. This indicates even more significant signs of decline compared to the period from January to May 2022, when 2,948 examination requests were submitted, a 9.1% drop compared to the same period of the previous year.