[Valuable Intellectual Property] The Golden Egg-Laying Standard Patent, ETRI Ranks 1st in the AI Field

As of March last year, 23 international standard patents in AI
Most held by Chinese companies and institutions, except ETRI
Active participation in standardization meetings crucial... Government support programs available

The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) of Korea has been found to hold the most international standard patents in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) worldwide. The economic value of standard patents is more than 12 times that of general patents, earning them the nickname "the goose that lays golden eggs."

Total Number of National Standard Patents Registered by Country in Five Standardization Organizations Including ISO, IEC, and ITU

According to the Korean Intellectual Property Office on the 10th, as of March last year, there were a total of 23 standard patents in the AI field. Korea's ETRI declared a total of 16 international standard patents in AI, making it the institution with the most holdings globally. Following ETRI were Peking University in China (2 patents), Baidu (1 patent), the Institute of Automation at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (1 patent), Tencent (1 patent), Hengrui Zhao (individual, 1 patent), and the French IT company Infovista SAS (1 patent). The AI fields where standard patents were declared mainly included intelligent question-and-answer services, language learning systems, face-to-face interpretation user interfaces, and AI model representation and management.

Standard patents refer to patents that must be licensed to produce products implementing standardized technology. Because the implementation of the specified standard technology is mandatory, avoidance is nearly impossible. This can be likened to a situation where one must pay a toll at a tollgate (standard patent) to enter a highway (standard technology). Standard patents are mainly concentrated in specific ICT fields such as mobile communications like 4G and 5G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and audio-video codecs.

According to the Science and Technology Policy Institute, the economic value of standard patents is more than 12 times that of general patents, with each ICT standard patent having an economic ripple effect exceeding 3.6 billion KRW. In 2011, LG Electronics valued an LTE standard patent at 6.6 billion KRW when transferring it to Pantech. Securing international standards makes it difficult to replace with other technologies, providing an advantage in capturing the global market. A Korean Intellectual Property Office official explained, "One of the purposes of technology standardization is to widely disseminate specific technologies in the market to achieve economies of scale," adding, "The large user base allows for stable royalty income generation, which is a key advantage."

A representative company that struck gold with standard patents is Qualcomm. Qualcomm secured the fundamental technology and patents for CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) and simultaneously promoted the CDMA method as the 2G mobile communication standard through technology demonstrations and other efforts, contributing significantly to its standardization. Eventually, the CDMA method became the 2G standard technology, and Qualcomm's CDMA patents became standard patents. LG Electronics also aggressively pursued standard patent licensing after withdrawing from the mobile business, reportedly earning about 900 billion KRW in mobile-related patent fees in 2022 alone.

To be recognized as a standard patent, one must publicly declare holding patents related to the standard at standardization organizations such as ISO, IEC, ITU, and IEEE. Additionally, patent holders must comply with the FRAND (Fair, Reasonable And Non-Discriminatory) obligation to license under fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms.

For a technology to be established as a standard, the technical committee of the standardization organization reviews the draft, then gathers and obtains consent from members. It is important for Korean companies and institutions to actively participate in standardization meetings. Being physically present at meetings allows for mutual exchange among participants, strategic discussions, and opportunities to promote proposed technologies through technical presentations. When conducting research and development, it is also necessary to set directions with the possibility of standardization in mind. The Ministry of Science and ICT provides the 'ICT Standard Expert Advisory Service,' and the Korean Intellectual Property Office supports standard patent acquisition through the 'Standard Patent Creation Support' project.