In 2007, the Korean shipbuilding industry continued to perform strongly, with the number of ship orders received increasing by over 58% compared to 2006. Additionally, patent applications related to research and development in technology saw a significant rise, growing by more than 43%.
According to data from the UK-based Clarkson Research Company at the end of January, South Korea secured 32 million CGT worth of ship orders in 2007, taking the top spot globally and accounting for 40.4% of the world's total orders.
The Korean Patent Office reported that the average annual number of patent applications in the shipbuilding sector (B63) rose by 20.2% over the past five years. In 2007 alone, the increase was even more dramatic, reaching 43.4% compared to 2006—surpassing the previous year by a large margin of 5.3 percentage points.
Looking back at the past four years (2002–2005), the average annual patent applications in the top four shipbuilding countries were as follows: China at 589, Japan at 544, Europe at 290, and South Korea at 533 over the last five years, showing a close comparison with Japan.
Leading Korean shipbuilders such as Samsung Heavy Industries and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering have seen substantial growth in patent applications, with increases of 5.1 times and 4.8 times respectively compared to 2006.
This surge in patent activity is partly due to increased investment in innovation, especially after Korean companies paid over 1 trillion won in copyright fees to GTT, a French company, in recent years.
In today’s knowledge-based economy, core patent technologies are crucial for maintaining competitive advantage. However, despite the impressive 776% increase in patent applications in the domestic shipbuilding sector in 2007, this still seems insufficient given the scale and global presence of the industry. Continued focus on R&D and intellectual property will be essential for sustaining long-term growth.
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