Patent Craze blowing on Clothing Care Systems!
-Clothing Care Systems field: Patent applications in 2019 increased
6 times compared to 10 years ago-
According to the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), the number of domestic patent applications in the field of clothing care systems increased from 14 cases in 2010 to 82 cases in 2019, an increase of nearly six times in 10 years. In particular, such applications have been increasing rapidly over the most recent three years (2017 ~ 2019), with these accounting for 65.4% of all applications over the past 10 years.
<Status of Domestic Patent Applications for Clothing Care Systems (2010-2019)>
The increase in such applications is due to airborne fine dust now continuing throughout the four seasons and thus emerging as a social issue over the past three or four years. In addition to the existing demand for removing smells and creases from clothes at home, the demand for consumers to have clean, dust-free clothes has soared, and in line with this has been the development of related technology.
In terms of the proportion of applicants for related domestic patent applications over the past 10 years (2010 ~ 2019) by type of applicant, domestic companies clearly lead all applications in that domestic applicants account for 96.3%, while foreigners account for only 3.7%.
<Status of Domestic Patent Applications by Applicant Type>
The situation is much the same in the US, with Korean companies accounting for 71.8% of all patent applications during the same period in relation to the clothing care systems field in the United States.
< Status of Clothing Care Systems Patent Applications in the US (2010 - 2019)>
※ The above application statistics exclude non-public applications (Source: KIPO Special Search System Search Material)
In addition, 70.1% of applications are filed by major companies and 21.1% of applications are filed by medium-sized companies/SMEs in this field. It is noteworthy that the number of applicants increased from 2 in 2010 to 18 in 2019, and the number of companies applying for more than 5 such applications a year has increased from 1 in 2010 to 4 in 2019. As domestic demand for clothing care systems increased due to fine dust, it seems that the number of applicant companies seeking to participate in the market has also increased.
<Patent Application Status by Applicant Type>
<Change in Number of Applicants by Year>
<Status of Applicants with Multiple Filings>
The major related technical trends are as follows: ① Fine dust removal technology accounts for 14.5% of total applications, with 56.1% involving the removal method of apparel vibration and 43.9% using the removal method of blowing air. Since 2018, the volume of applications using air blowing methods has outpaced vibration-related applications. ② The technology that provides the highest level of clothing care by applying fine dust data and a user's life pattern data using artificial intelligence makes up only 8.2% of the total, but such applications have been increasing rapidly since 2018. ③ Technology for adding an indoor air cleaning function to a clothing care system is small in volume of applications (3.9%), but the number of such applications has been steady since 2017.
<Application Status by Detailed Technical Field>
The Chief of the Home Appliance Examination Bureau of KIPO said, "Domestic demand for at-home clothing care is expected to increase steadily in the future as fine dust becomes more prevalent, and accordingly we expect that domestic filings of applications by companies will be active.” He added, “As foreign markets are still in the planning stage, it is necessary to simultaneously promote local customized technology development and an aggressive overseas patent acquisition strategy.”
[Source: KIPO]
