Korea 19th in bio patents

Korea’s biotechnology sector ranked among the world’s top 20 in the number of registered biotechnology patents in the United States, the Korean Intellectual Property Office said yesterday. Quoting a report by the U.S. government’s Patent and Trademark Office, the Korean office said Korea was the 19th-largest source of patents out of 84,485 biotechnology-related patents registered for licensing between 1985 and 2004. The ranking is based on the number of registered patents times their influential index. The United States led the rankings, followed by Japan, Germany and England. During the 1995-99 period, Korea ranked 20th, but moved up to 14th during the 2000-04 period, manifesting rapid growth in the area. The report stressed the need for the Korean government to increase investment in biotechnology, as Korea’s level of technology adaptability trails that of the United States and Japan.