This study used the data of international patent as an indicator of innovation and analyzed the technological innovation performance of Korea and China. Based on the patent database granted by USPTO during 2013∼2017, this paper also adopts Patent Activity Index, Technology Strength Index and Three Countries Patent Index as the indicators of technical performance and marketability.
The results are as follows. The international patent applications of China and South Korea are mainly concentrated on few areas, such as the top five fields of computer technology, digital communications, semiconductors, and audio-visual technology, electrical machinery, apparatus, energy.
China has a higher concentration of patent activity in technology fields such as digital communication, electrical machinery, energy, and telecommunication, and China has higher market power than Korea in the telecommunication area. On the other hand, the technological innovation performance of Korea, evaluated in terms of the Technology Strength Index, was analyzed as to be relatively higher than that of China in the top 5 technology.
Recently, China has been expanding R&D investment in major technology fields and actively securing its rights by applying for international patents. Therefore, Korea competing for the global market as a rival of china, needs more efforts to expand overseas markets with the development of technology.