Samsung’s flagship wearable device, the Galaxy Watch. [사진 제공 = 삼성전자]Maeil Economic Daily and global patent analysis company LexisNexis have selected three new technologies – wearables, machine learning, and autonomous driving – as the three new technologies where companies have actively invested and innovated in the last 10 years, and has held a total of two We publish the property innovation companies site. In this patent ranking analysis, the LexisNexis patent analysis solution ‘Patent Asset Index (PAI)’ was used. The PAI is a patent competitiveness index calculated by including various indicators to judge the quality of patents, such as the number of patents owned by a company, the number of patent citations, and the size of the market in which patents are protected. According to the results of the analysis on the 3rd, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics of Korea were among the top 30 innovative information companies in the three major global new technologies. Including these companies, a total of seven companies including Alphabet (USA), Huawei (China), Intel (USA), Sony (Japan) and Panasonic (Japan) were listed in the rankings in all three areas.
Samsung Electronics came first in the intellectual property ranking in the wearable field. This is a great achievement that surpassed Apple (2nd place), which owns the ‘Apple Watch’, a representative wearable device.
Wearable technology is a collective term for smart electronic device technologies that can be attached to or carried around the body, such as smart watches, body sensors, video goggles, and virtual reality (VR) devices.
In the case of Samsung Electronics, it only became 5th in the field of wearables in 2012, 10 years ago, but currently it takes the top position by chasing Alphabet (Google), Sony, and Microsoft, and then Apple.
Samsung not only continues to grow quantitatively in the field of wearable technology, but also rigorously controls the quality of its patents. LexisNexis explained, “The average quality of Samsung Electronics’ wearable patent portfolio is 3.5, which is significantly higher than the average quality of the entire wearable technology patent portfolio, which is 2.1.”
The patents owned by Harman International, which Samsung acquired in 2016, also seem to have greatly improved Samsung’s technological competitiveness. Harman’s patents include augmented reality (AR) technology used in vehicle driving, head-up display, road object recognition, and optical/voice recognition technology.
Apple took the first place in 2012 with its unrivaled technology, surpassing other companies, and has not lost the first place for several years, so it is a company that has emerged early in the wearable field. Although emerging powerhouses are growing rapidly and joining the competition ranks, they still show strong patent competitiveness. Although it lost first place to Samsung Electronics in 2019, it is still in second place, closely chasing first place, showing a large gap with Microsoft, which is third. Unlike Samsung Electronics and other large companies in the wearable technology positions, which improved their technological competitiveness through the process of acquiring other companies, Apple strengthens its competitiveness by developing its own technology without acquiring related companies.
In addition to electronics and information technology (IT) companies such as Samsung and Apple, various companies such as platform-based technology companies such as Meta (7th), consumer goods companies, medical equipment manufacturers, semiconductor chip manufacturers, and AR companies / VR. develops wearable technology, competes in the field.
Although there are many companies that have consistently shown competitiveness in related fields such as Microsoft (3rd) and Sony (4th), there are also small but strong companies that have emerged as a comet, such as the startup from the US ‘Magic Leap’, which took 5th place. Magic Leap did not appear in the rankings at all in 2017, five years ago, but between 2016 and 2017, its patent competitiveness more than tripled, making it a breakthrough, making it into the top 5. The company is an AR headset maker, with 73% of its 760 patent portfolios related to wearable technology.
Facebook, which changed its name to ‘Meta’, is achieving quantitative growth by investing heavily in related areas to the extent that 18% of its entire patent portfolio is related to wearable technology. VR company Oculus’ patent acquired in 2014 is believed to have further enhanced the competitiveness of Meta’s wearable technology.
Medical device companies such as Philips (9th), Medtronic (10th), Dexcom (20th), and ResMed (28th), which are medical equipment companies, are also prominent. Nike (16th), a representative sports brand, is also one of the notable companies listed as a wearable technology innovation company.
It is also worth noting that companies that did not make the top 30 in the world but made the top 10 in the rankings are only for Korean companies. After Samsung and LG Electronics (8th in the world and 2nd in Korea), Hyundai Motor Company (3rd in Korea) is the third Korean company with strong competitiveness in wearable technology. The company that came fifth after LG Display (Korea’s fourth) is the Korean startup Retinal, which develops AR optical lenses. Of the total of 43 patents, 86% of patents are related to wearable technology. Neofect (8th in Korea), a healthcare company specializing in rehabilitation, has been confirmed to have competitive patents that are actively applied in the fields of rehabilitation and AR.
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