Samsung Electronics registered 11,054 patents in Korea and the United States in the first half of this year. This is the first time it has topped 10,000 for two consecutive half-year periods.
According to Samsung Electronics' semiannual and business reports on the 23rd, the company registered 5,572 patents in Korea and 5,482 in the United States in the first half of this year. Following 11,387 in the second half of last year, this is the second-highest figure on record.
The number of Samsung Electronics' patent registrations in Korea and the United States has steadily increased since reaching 7,474 in the first half of 2020. It surpassed 9,000 for the first time with 9,233 in the second half of 2023, dipped to 8,417 and 8,616 in the first and second halves of 2024, then set back-to-back record highs with 9,599 in the first half and 11,387 in the second half of last year.
Including Korea and the United States, cumulative global patent registrations totaled 296,468 as of the first half. By country, the United States led with 109,674, followed by Korea with 69,831, Europe with 55,319, China with 32,678, Japan with 8,025, and others with 20,941.
Samsung Electronics' research and development spending in the first half of this year was 27.3627 trillion won, up 9.2986 trillion won from 18.0641 trillion won in the first half of last year. It is the largest ever for a half-year period. By year, research and development spending was 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.
Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong said in Oct. 2022, ahead of taking the chairmanship, "We must invest in technologies that do not exist in the world. Our survival depends on future technologies."