Patent Office-Industry Meeting on Intellectual Property Collaboration in Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Sector

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) announced on the 24th that it will hold a 'Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Intellectual Property Council Meeting' at its Seoul office.

The council is composed and operated mainly by domestic companies with multiple patent applications in the electric vehicle charging infrastructure sector, including large corporations, small and medium-sized enterprises, startups, and government-funded research institutes.

The meeting is organized to share key technologies, industry and patent trends in the 'electric vehicle charging infrastructure sector' for expanding electric vehicle adoption, and to reflect field opinions in setting policy directions.

Through the council, KIPO plans to continuously share global patent trends in electric vehicle charging infrastructure with the industry and support the fostering of the electric vehicle charging infrastructure industry through organic cooperation among large and small businesses and research institutions.

Meanwhile, from 2010 to 2019, global patent applications in key technologies of electric vehicle charging infrastructure such as ultra-fast charging, bidirectional charging, charging infrastructure management, and battery monitoring technologies have shown an average annual increase of 14%.

In South Korea as well, patent applications in this field have increased by about 12% annually since 2015.

As a result, since 2016, South Korea's patent applications in key technologies of electric vehicle charging infrastructure have surpassed those of the United States and Japan, and in 2018, the annual number of applications (265 cases) ranked second in the world after China (1,436 cases).

Um Chan-wang, Director of the Telecommunications Technology Examination Bureau at KIPO, emphasized, "Electric vehicle charging infrastructure is a foundational industry preparing for the electric vehicle era," adding, "To secure the rapidly growing global charging infrastructure market, it is more important than anything else to develop core technologies and secure excellent patents."