South Korea ranked sixth in the world in terms of the number of patent applications made in 2005, an international patent organization said Friday.
According to the the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), South Korea applied for a total 4,747 patents last year, up 34 per cent from a year earlier, outpacing the Netherlands to become the sixth-largest patent-applying country.
The growth was mainly driven by South Korea's two conglomerates, Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc., whose combined patent applications accounted for around 20 per cent of the total.
The United States retained its top spot with 45,111 applications, followed by Japan with 25,145 and Germany with 15,870, the Geneva-based WIPO said.
Asian countries showed a marked increase in their patent applications last year.
China's ranking rose to 10th for the first time after applying for 2,452 international patents, up 44 per cent from the year earlier, WIPO said.
Meanwhile, Philips Electronics N.V. of the Netherlands maintained its status as the leading corporate applicant for patents, followed by Japan's Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Germany's Siemens A.G., and Finland's Nokia Corp., WIPO said.
South Korea's Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics ranked 14th and 29th, respectively.
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