Samsung Electronics Surpasses 10,000 Patents in South Korea and US in H1... Approaching 300,000 Total Registrations

Over 10,000 Patent Registrations for Two Consecutive Half-Years, a First in Company History
R&D Investments Bear Fruit, KRW 27 Trillion Invested in First Half

In the first half of this year, Samsung Electronics registered more than 11,000 patents in South Korea and the United States alone, surpassing 10,000 patents for two consecutive half-year periods for the first time in its history.

Samsung Seocho Building. Photo by Yonhap News

According to Samsung Electronics' semiannual and business reports disclosed on August 23, the company registered 5,572 patents in South Korea and 5,482 patents in the United States during the first half of the year, totaling 11,054 patents. This marks the second-highest figure on record, following the second half of last year, which saw 11,387 patents registered.

This is the first time that Samsung Electronics has registered more than 10,000 patents in both South Korea and the United States for two consecutive half-year periods. The number of patents registered in the two countries increased from 7,474 in the first half of 2020 to 9,233 in the second half of 2023, breaking the 9,000 mark for the first time. In the second half of last year, the number peaked at 11,387, once again setting a new record.

As of the first half of this year, the total cumulative number of patents registered by Samsung Electronics worldwide amounts to 296,468. Given that an average of about 2,000 patents per month are registered in South Korea and the United States alone, it is estimated that the cumulative number of patents has already surpassed 300,000 by the present time, which is two months after the reporting period.

By country, the United States has the largest share with 109,674 registered patents, followed by South Korea (69,831 patents), Europe (55,319 patents), and China (32,678 patents).

Industry observers attribute this patent performance to consistent investment in research and development (R&D). Samsung Electronics' R&D investment in the first half of this year reached 27.3627 trillion won, an increase of 51.5% (9.2986 trillion won) compared to the first half of last year (18.0641 trillion won). This marks a new half-year record.

Annual R&D investments were 21.11 trillion won in 2020, 22.4 trillion won in 2021, 24.92 trillion won in 2022, 28.34 trillion won in 2023, 35 trillion won in 2024, and 37.7 trillion won last year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.