An official hands out hand sanitizers to people waiting in line at a makeshift clinic in Incheon, west of Seoul, on June 3, 2020. (Yonhap)
DAEJEON, March 23 (Korea Bizwire) — The contactless practices triggered by the coronavirus outbreak are altering the landscape of the design industry.
The Korean Intellectual Property Office reported a decrease in the number of new design patents for beauty products and fabric, while applications for products related to hobbies, entertainment, and exercise increased in number.
An average of 6,840 design patents for everyday products were submitted each year between 2017 and 2019. Last year, 9,199 such patents were submitted, up by 34.5 percent from the average over the last three years.
A total of 3,042 design patents for hobbies, entertainment and exercise were submitted last year, up by 4.6 percent from the average (2,907).
In contrast, applications for beauty products and accessories dropped from a yearly average of 9,306 patents to 8,926, a decrease of 4.1 percent. Applications for fabric and other basic materials also dropped from 5,772 submissions to 4,863, down by 15.7 percent.
Sorted by specific items, applications for protective masks jumped from 377 patents to 2,444, up by 548.3 percent, due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Applications for sterilizers, skin care devices, and other indoor sanitation products also jumped from 1,355 patents to 3,857, up by 184.6 percent.
In contrast, applications for jewelry dropped from 3,277 submissions to 2,578, down by 21.3 percent as the coronavirus prevented people from going out and socializing.
Applications for cosmetics dropped from 1,232 submissions to 978, down by 20.6 percent, while applications for shoes and bags dropped by 7.7 percent and 6.1 percent, respectively.
Ashley Song (ashley@koreabizwire.com)
