Despite South Korea’s dominant position in the global memory semiconductor market, its patent competitiveness in the semiconductor sector is still very weak, according to the Korea Intellectual Property Strategy Bureau (KISTA).
In particular, the number of patents for OLED panels should be pointed out. Park Won-Joong, head of the Korea Patent Office, said that by analyzing big data on global display technology patents, the Chinese mainland has led South Korea in the number of new OLED(organic light-emitting diode) related patents, and it is expected that China’s market share of OLED panels could overtake South Korea in five to 10 years, the Joongang Ilbo reported.
Park pointed out that China has already surpassed Korea in the number of new patents for OLED by a large margin. Considering that seven years after the number of patents in Korea was overtaken by China, the market share for LCD was also lost, the same is expected for OLED. In particular, in the Mini LED market, which is regarded as a new technology, Korea has already lagged behind the U.S. and China in the number of patents, and Korea is expected to face a crisis in the display market.
South Korea accounted for less than 15 percent of patent filings in the field of Mini LED displays, according to Ovirivo today (8). South Korea is concerned that its companies could lose their leading position in the future display market.